Older workers are more
conscientious, careful and organised when it comes to taking a decision at work
than those in younger age groups, according to a new study.
The study suggested that
ageing does not correlate with a deteriorating ability to think for ourselves,
contrary to conventional wisdom that suggests cognitive function begins to
decline in the mid-40s.
Researchers found older
decision makers are as logically consistent as younger ones and that increased
age alone was not a key factor in predicting impaired decision-making capacity,
BusinessNewsDaily reported.
Research by the MetLife
Mature Market Institute and the Center for BrainHealth at the University of
Texas at Dallas found that healthy adults in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who
demonstrated smart decision-making also excelled at strategic learning - the ability to sift more important
information from the less important.
“The study findings are
a crucial first step to move beyond age as a demographic factor used to explain
impaired decision-making,” said Sandra Chapman, founder and Chief Director of
the Center for BrainHealth.
The research was based
on tests of 72 adults with ages evenly divided between men and women within
each of the three decades (50s, 60s and 70s).
Each participant was
tested on a framing task to measure the logical consistency of their
decision-making behaviour and assessed to determine their level of cognitive
functioning.
The research discovered
that seniors who excel in strategic learning are also more likely to make sound
financial decisions.
Specifically, those
study participants who performed well in sifting important information on the
strategic learning measure made more logically consistent financial decisions,
while those who didn’t perform as well were less logically consistent and
showed a bias toward riskier choices that had the potential for either
financial gain or loss.
“Rather than attributing
impaired decision-making to age alone, approaches that assess an individual’s
strategic learning ability and cognitive function can improve our understanding
of decision-making capacity at all ages and between genders,” said Sandra
Timmermann, Director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute.
