If there’s one thing many people tend to agree on it’s that we all think teenagers are these little pre -pubescent creatures struggling to slither from their shells as they get thrown into this expanding world of endless discovery and rarely does anyone ever willingly admit to being one of those creatures once upon a time. But the truth is we were all there in our reckless little worlds, but one has to question whether we were as reckless as the general population likes to perceive?
In a recent study done in Duke University it was proven that when it comes to monetary issues at least, teenagers can be far more rational than society has given them credit for. The study went on to show how analytical a group of young people where when faced with three situations, of which they had to pick the best one. Each scenario consisted of an opportunity of winning or losing some money.
For example, if a teen picked scenario A, they had a one-third chance of winning possibly $6, one-third chance of winning $4, and a one-third chance of losing $4. Scenarios B and C carried similar rulings to win or lose three different dollar amounts.
The young adults, aged 22 years old on average, approached the task with relatively simple rules in mind. As they completed more trials they opted to go for wins then losses as they chose the scenario with the most wins, completely ignoring the money aspect.
However, as the teenagers went for the scenarios the first thing they seemed to focus on was the magnitude of the potential win or loss and thus they ended up choosing a scenario that minimized their monetary loss.
“I was surprised by how consistent the effects were,” Scott Huettel, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke was even quoted as saying, “Pretty much everywhere we looked, adolescents were the ones who looked more economically rational.”
It would seem that the young are far more advanced in their thinking than they are given credit for yet somehow society still seems to keep them labelled as the reckless ones. It begs the question of whether or not we have moved past the point of making assumptions based on old principles born from old cultures long dead.
What is it that makes teenagers so much more able to stay rational where young adults fail to do so? The answer could probably be found in a different, possibly in more detailed study that tells us a more curious fact about our pre-pubescent money hoarders as it has their brains mapped and compared to that of an adult.
In the study the teens and adults were asked how they would react to certain situations and then their brains were imaged as they responded. The researchers found that though responses were similar between the two groups, the brain activity differed, specifically the medial prefrontal cortex was much more active in the adults then it was in the teenagers. The teens did however, have much more activity in their superior temporal sulcus, the part of the brain that involved prediction of future actions based on previous experience.
Basically the teenagers were faced with a far simpler question that they put to themselves than that of their older companions had as they executed their judgement. While the adults considered not only themselves but those around them, you had the teenager only considering themselves. Taking this phenomenon into account it begins to make sense how teenagers are capable of being as rational as you find simplicity in the way their thinking is processed. But can it be said for all teenagers?
Who knows, what is known is that this selfish kind of thinking doesn’t seem to last for long as the young mind matures into that of a young adult’s mind and the idea of thinking about others comes into play. Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on the individual.
No comments:
Post a Comment