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Individual differences in skewed financial risk-taking across the adult life span.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Seaman, KL; Leong, JK; Wu, CC; Knutson, B; Samanez-Larkin, GR
Published in: Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience
December 2017

Older adults are disproportionately targeted by fraud schemes that advertise unlikely but large returns (positively skewed risks). We examined adult age differences in choice and neural activity as individuals considered risky gambles. Gambles were symmetric (50% chance of modest win or loss), positively skewed (25% chance of large gain), or negatively skewed (25% chance of large loss). The willingness to accept positively skewed relative to symmetric gambles increased with age, and this effect replicated in an independent behavioral study. Whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses comparing positively (vs. negatively) skewed trials revealed that relative to younger adults, older adults showed increased anticipatory activity for negatively skewed gambles but reduced activity for positively skewed gambles in the anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal regions. Individuals who were more biased toward positively skewed gambles showed increased activity in a network of regions including the nucleus accumbens. These results reveal age biases toward positively skewed gambles and age differences in corticostriatal regions during skewed risk-taking, and have implications for identifying financial decision biases across adulthood.

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Published In

Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1531-135X

ISSN

1530-7026

Publication Date

December 2017

Volume

17

Issue

6

Start / End Page

1232 / 1241

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Risk-Taking
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Logistic Models
  • Individuality
  • Humans
  • Female
 

Citation

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Seaman, K. L., Leong, J. K., Wu, C. C., Knutson, B., & Samanez-Larkin, G. R. (2017). Individual differences in skewed financial risk-taking across the adult life span. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 17(6), 1232–1241. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-017-0545-5
Seaman, Kendra L., Josiah K. Leong, Charlene C. Wu, Brian Knutson, and Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin. “Individual differences in skewed financial risk-taking across the adult life span.Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience 17, no. 6 (December 2017): 1232–41. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-017-0545-5.
Seaman KL, Leong JK, Wu CC, Knutson B, Samanez-Larkin GR. Individual differences in skewed financial risk-taking across the adult life span. Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience. 2017 Dec;17(6):1232–41.
Seaman, Kendra L., et al. “Individual differences in skewed financial risk-taking across the adult life span.Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 17, no. 6, Dec. 2017, pp. 1232–41. Epmc, doi:10.3758/s13415-017-0545-5.
Seaman KL, Leong JK, Wu CC, Knutson B, Samanez-Larkin GR. Individual differences in skewed financial risk-taking across the adult life span. Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience. 2017 Dec;17(6):1232–1241.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1531-135X

ISSN

1530-7026

Publication Date

December 2017

Volume

17

Issue

6

Start / End Page

1232 / 1241

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Risk-Taking
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Logistic Models
  • Individuality
  • Humans
  • Female