TY - GEN
T1 - Risky Decision Making for Medications
T2 - 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Computational Foundations of Cognition, CogSci 2017
AU - Chong, Amy W.
AU - Bixter, Michael T.
AU - Rogers, Wendy A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by a pilot grant fromthe National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging) Grant P01 AG17211 under the auspices of the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE; www.create-center.org), and by the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grant from the National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging) Grant 2T32AG000175-26A1.
Publisher Copyright:
© CogSci 2017.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Prior studies on older adults' risk taking have paid little attention to the healthcare domain or social influences on decision making. This study examined age-related differences in medication risk taking and the effects of a collaborative decision-making experience on individuals' tendency to take risks. We recruited 24 younger (mean age = 19.50, SD = 1.41) and 24 older adults (mean age = 70.54, SD = 2.30), and asked them to choose between hypothetical medications that differed in probabilities and outcomes of treatment success. To investigate the effects of risk-neutral versus risk-advantageous trials, participants chose between a risky option and a sure option that had equal expected values (risk-neutral) or between a risky option and a sure option that had a lower expected value (risk-advantageous). Participants completed the decision task first individually (the pre-collaboration phase), then in dyads (the collaboration phase), and once again individually (the post-collaboration phase). During the pre-collaboration phase older adults showed a smaller increase in risk-taking tendency in response to risk-advantageous trials compared to younger adults. The pre-and post-collaboration data showed that older adults' risk preferences converged towards their partner's preference to a greater extent following collaboration relative to younger adults. These findings highlight the importance of designing decision aids to encourage older adults to take risks when risk taking is beneficial, and considering how social processes influence patients' medication decisions.
AB - Prior studies on older adults' risk taking have paid little attention to the healthcare domain or social influences on decision making. This study examined age-related differences in medication risk taking and the effects of a collaborative decision-making experience on individuals' tendency to take risks. We recruited 24 younger (mean age = 19.50, SD = 1.41) and 24 older adults (mean age = 70.54, SD = 2.30), and asked them to choose between hypothetical medications that differed in probabilities and outcomes of treatment success. To investigate the effects of risk-neutral versus risk-advantageous trials, participants chose between a risky option and a sure option that had equal expected values (risk-neutral) or between a risky option and a sure option that had a lower expected value (risk-advantageous). Participants completed the decision task first individually (the pre-collaboration phase), then in dyads (the collaboration phase), and once again individually (the post-collaboration phase). During the pre-collaboration phase older adults showed a smaller increase in risk-taking tendency in response to risk-advantageous trials compared to younger adults. The pre-and post-collaboration data showed that older adults' risk preferences converged towards their partner's preference to a greater extent following collaboration relative to younger adults. These findings highlight the importance of designing decision aids to encourage older adults to take risks when risk taking is beneficial, and considering how social processes influence patients' medication decisions.
KW - aging
KW - health
KW - risky decision making
KW - social influence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063287197&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85063287197
T3 - CogSci 2017 - Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Computational Foundations of Cognition
SP - 1770
EP - 1775
BT - CogSci 2017 - Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
PB - The Cognitive Science Society
Y2 - 26 July 2017 through 29 July 2017
ER -