Risky choice in younger versus older adults: Affective context matters

Abstract

Earlier frameworks have indicated that older adults tend to experience decline in their deliberative decisional capacity, while their affective abilities tend to remain intact (Peters, Hess, Västfjäll, & Auman, 2007). The present study applied this framework to the study of risky decision-making across the lifespan. Two versions of the Columbia Card Task (CCT) were used to trigger either affective decision-making (i.e., the “warm” CCT) or deliberative decision-making (i.e., the “cold” CCT) in a sample of 158 individuals across the lifespan. Overall there were no age differences in risk seeking. However, there was a significant interaction between age and condition, such that older adults were relatively more risk seeking in the cold condition only. In terms of everyday decision-making, context matters and risk propensity may shift within older adults depending upon the context.

Information use in risky decision making: Do age differences depend on affective context?

“…These results significantly extend the work of Huang and colleagues (2013, 2015), who found age differences in self-reported deliberative decision making strategies, and differences in information use on the “warm” version of the CCT. Specifically, our results demonstrated the associations between neuropsychological variables, decision primitives, and risk-return indicators across task condition.…”

“…In contrast, for the CCT-Cold, the decision-maker is asked to select how many cards they want to turn over if they were to make sequential choices, instead of selecting cards one-by-one as in the CCT-Hot. Because of these differences, the CCT-Hot has been found to be associated with greater emotional arousal, indexed by both self-report and skin conductance responses (e.g., Figner et al, 2009;Huang et al, 2013).…”

“…The broader literature demonstrating asymmetries in deliberative versus affective processing abilities suggests that age-related declines in information use (e.g., EV) will be attenuated as decisions become more experienced-based versus more descriptive (Huang, Wood, Berger, & Hanoch, 2013, 2015). This might especially be the case when choice options are limited, minimizing the need for information search processes (Frey, Mata, & Hertwig, 2015; Mata & Nunes, 2010).…”

Entrepreneurial orientation and decision‐making under risk and uncertainty: Experimental evidence from the Columbia Card Task

“…Decision‐making under risk and uncertainty was measured using the “warm” 1 CCT (Huang et al, 2013), which presents participants with a virtual array of 32 (4 8) cards that are positioned face down. Participants are informed that most of these cards are “win cards,” which make them earn points that can be redeemed for money at the end of the task.…”

“…In this scenario, earnings for this trial are 8 × 30–250 = −10 points. While originally the win and loss cards had respectively yellow smiley faces and red frowny faces (Figner et al, 2009; Huang et al, 2013), the present study adopted the design with a green plus sign and a red minus sign to reduce the possible impact of (abstracted) facial features on individuals' emotion and thereby decision‐making.…”