The credulity of the elderly

Pensioners are often deceived. In the United States alone, according to some estimates, people over 60 years old lost $ 2.9 billion in 2010 due to scammers of different calibers, 12% more than in 2008 [1]. But why are citizens in their right mind, firm memory and with great life experience are so gullible that they entrust their wallets to the rogue, who are seen for the first time in their lives? The answer to this question was searched for by doctors and psychologists of the University of California (Los Angeles, USA) under the leadership of Professor Shelley Taylor. Scientists came to the conclusion that the excessive gullibility of older people is a kind of age pathology. Due to the weakening of the function of the anterior island fraction (island) of the cerebral cortex, they are penetrated without any reason to confidently with suspicious strangers [2].

The study of California scientists consisted of two stages. The first was attended by 119 people from 55 to 84 years old and 24 people from 20 to 42 years old. All of them were sufficiently educated: the young graduated at least the college, and some elderly people possessed academic degrees. The researchers had photographs (adults of Anfas's adults close -up on a similar background) who have been a preliminary assessment of many people who determined whether one or another person of trust deserves. Scientists selected 10 photographs of people unanimously recognized as worthy of trust, neutral and suspicious. (Alas, the researchers do not describe signs of suspicion and do not cite a single photograph in the article.)

These photographs showed the participants in the experiment who were supposed to evaluate the reliability and accessibility of a person. A reliable person is the one who is not afraid to entrust your life and your money, you can easily approach the street and enter into a conversation. The assessment was carried out on a 7-point scale: a person who received-3, absolutely does not inspire confidence, and 3-certainly disposes to himself.

It turned out that older people evaluated the reliability and accessibility of people from reliable and neutral groups in the same way as young participants in the experiment. As for suspicious strangers, the elderly were less critical of them and on the reliability scale placed them with an average rating - 0.75, while young - 1.4. In assessing the availability of suspicious personalities, participants in different ages also dispersed.

It turns out that elderly people are really inclined to trust strangers. Seeing in front of him an aggressive and gloomy person with a look, they will let him into the house, drink tea and give the last money.

Then the researchers determined which nerve structures are responsible for such behavior. According to some reports, the island is responsible for the instinctive sense of danger and risk assessment. To check this hypothesis, scientists examined 39 people, the fractions of the young and the elderly were approximately equal. Each participant had to evaluate 60 photographs, but not in points, but efficiently: “trust” or “I do not trust” - and scientists at that time measured the activity of the neurons of the island. As a control task, it was necessary to determine the sex of a person in the photo. It turned out that young people have neurons of the front lobe of the island more actively when the subjects consider the issue of trust than during the determination of the floor.

When young people evaluate photographs from the category of suspicious, the activity of their neurons is significantly higher than at the sight of religious individuals. The elderly participants in the experiment has almost no difference in activity. Obviously, the anterior island share, more precisely, its left side, really allows a person to intuitively feel the danger and sends him a warning signal. In the elderly, this function is weakened, so it is so difficult for them to treat a stranger, whom a younger man would not even let on the threshold.

Perhaps the phenomenon of the trusting of the elderly has other explanations. As an alternative to their hypothesis, the authors of the study consider two versions. The first: young and elderly people who attracted to the experiment belong to different age cohorts, and the older generation can be more trusting than young, simply because it happened in this cohort. The second version: more positively configured and gullible people live longer, the so -called selective mortality (Selective Mortality).

However, a number of studies are indicated against these versions (the authors are completely shared by their conclusions), confirming that older people, regardless of a specific cohort, perceive life more positively, complain less often, try to forget all the bad faster and think only about good. In other words, the assessment of the balance of positive and negative experience in the elderly is shifted towards the first, while in younger generations this is not so. And this process becomes quite obvious in the first period of adulthood [3, 4]. New results, as the authors believe, completely fit into this picture.

The article also refers to studies that showed that with greater gullibility, elderly people are more careful and less inclined to invest in money. At the same time, they are more generous for the reward of those people who made them something good [5]. Some studies also showed that older people experience less fear of becoming victims of some dishonest people, although they are less protected from many types of crimes [6]. All this leads to the fact that older people often lose money due to scammers. The reason for this may be just an increased “physiological” trusting of the elderly, the authors of the article note.

1. Metlife Mature Market Institute

(2011). The Metlife Study of Elder Financial abuse: Crimes of OcCasion, Desperation, and Predition Against America's Elders. http://web.archive.org/web/20120417061652/http://www.preventelDerabuse.org/documents/mmi-lder-financial-ase.pdf

2. Castle et al. "Neural and Behavioral Bases of Age Differences in Perceptions of Trust" // PNAS

(2012), v. 109 (51), 20848-20852; DOI/10.1073/pnas.1218518109.

3. Carstensen LL, et al. (2011). Emotional Experience Imprings with Age: Evidence Based 10 Years of Experience Sampling. PSYCHOL AGING 26 (1): 21-33.

4. Sutin ar, et al. Cohort Effect on Well-Being: The Legacy of Economic Hard Times. Psychol Sci, in Press.

5. Sutter M, Kocher Mg (2007). TRUST and TRUSTWORTHINESS ACROSS DIFFERENT AGE Groups // Games Econom Behav 59: 364-382.

6. Ferraro KF, La Grange RL (1992). Are Older People Most Afraid

Of Crime? Reconsidering Age Differences in Fear of Victimization // J Gerontol 47 (5): S233-S244.