Older people more irrational and inconsistent

With age comes wisdom, or so the adage goes, but a new study has found that older adults are more likely to make poor financial decisions and irrational choices than any other age group.

Researchers at the University of Sydney, New York University and Yale’s School of Medicine asked 135 participants between 21 to 90 years of age to make a series of financial decisions, choosing between options that carried different levels of risk and reward, ranging from HK$55 to HK$900. Participants were put into age categories such as young (aged 21 to 25), midlife (aged 30 to 50) and older (over 65 years old).

"Older people were much more likely to be inconsistent in their decisions," said the study’s author, Dr. Agnieszka Tymula.

Other factors, such as education level, IQ, wealth and relevant medical history were also considered. Education and intelligence did not seem to make a difference, even healthy adults aged 65 and older with numeracy skills and IQ levels similar to their younger peers had less ability to make rational decisions.

“We were really surprised by the degree of inconsistency and irrationally of the older adults. The participants were highly functioning adults, with IQ scores that would place them among the most intelligent adults of the population. I think this suggests the problem in the general populations might be even bigger,” said Dr. Tymula.