Most adults firmly believe that as kids reach their teens, they start to take crazy risks that get them in trouble. Do teenagers simply love taking all risks much more than adults? A recent study suggests otherwise.
Scientists designed a simple experiment involving 33 teenagers and three other age groups. In the experiment, the researchers tried to distinguish between two very different kinds of risk-taking. The first they called a willingness to take known risks (when the probability of winning is clear) and the second they called a willingness to take unknown risks (when the possibility of success is uncertain).
The study offered participants the opportunity to play two kinds of games. They had the chance to win money, with one game offering a known risk and the other offering an unknown risk. On each round of the game, each participant had to choose between taking a sure $5 and known or unknown risks of winning a lot more. If on one particular round they had picked the $5 for sure choice, then they got $ 5. But if on that round they had chosen to take a risk, the rules of the game will determine whether or not they had won. If they did win, they went home with between $8 and $125. And, of course, if they lost, they went home with nothing.
What the scientists found was really quite surprising. It turned out that the average teenager was very hesitant when risks were known—more careful than college students or parents-aged adults, and about as careful as grandparent-aged adults. This means that when the risks were known, teenagers were not risky in their behavior at all. Only when the risks were unclear did teenagers choose them more often than other groups. Under those kinds of conditions, they were much more willing to take a risk than any oth