| NSF Org: |
SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | July 30, 2021 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 4, 2023 |
| Award Number: | 2116369 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Claudia Gonzalez-Vallejo
clagonza@nsf.gov (703)292-4710 SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2021 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2025 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $560,915.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $560,915.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2022 = $196,159.00 FY 2023 = $185,807.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
800 WEST CAMPBELL RD. RICHARDSON TX US 75080-3021 (972)883-2313 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
800 W. Campbell Rd., AD15 Richardson TX US 75080-3021 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): |
Decision, Risk & Mgmt Sci, DS -Developmental Sciences |
| Primary Program Source: |
01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
Each year, 1 out of every 18 older adults is the victim of financial fraud, resulting in estimated losses of $37 billion. These older adults are likely targeted because of this age group?s growing size, affluence, and power. Thus, it is important to understand why older adults sometimes make decisions that are different than younger adults as these age-related differences in decision making have enormous social and economic consequences. An overall goal of this project is to identify the psychological mechanisms that underlie age differences in risky decision making over the adult life span. This mechanistic focus generates critical insight about aging and decision making that guides the development of interventions to improve decision strategies in vulnerable older adults. This project also seeks to increase financial literacy in the general public by developing accessible educational materials appropriate for the adult population.
This project addresses age differences in decision making when considering positively-skewed risks. Positively-skewed risks are decisions that involve options that promise large but unlikely gains coupled with small but likely losses. Older adults tend to accept these risks more often than younger adults or have a Positive-Skew bias. Integrating theories and methods from disparate subfields in psychology and economics, the project examines two potential psychological mechanisms that underlie this effect. One mechanism is an age-related tendency to attend to, and remember positive information, or the age-related ?positivity effect? that leads to a Positive-Skew bias. The attention hypothesis explores the tendency of older adults to focus on positive information (including attending to and remembering positive information). Activating other goals may lessen the bias by reducing attention. Another mechanism examines the selective avoidance of losses, which requires engaging cognitive control. The ability to engage cognitive resources is inhibited during decision making in older relative to younger adults and several experimental conditions test the influence of cognitive control mechanisms on the Positive-Skew bias. The project tests interventions targeting cognitive control to reduced bias.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
