Diversity in the study of aging and lifespan development.

In psychology, authors have shined a light on a lack of ethnic/racial and cultural diversity in sampling and scholarship. These issues pertain also to the study of aging and lifespan development. This article presents examples of how diverse sampling, across ethnic/racial groups and cultures, enriches theories of aging and adult development. There remain, however, numerous theoretical insights that are yet to be uncovered by future research that seeks to further diversify this sub-discipline. Good practices and avenues to diversification are considered, including targeted sampling of minority groups in the community, online sampling with use of data screening tools, lifespan-orientated surveys initiated in non-Western countries, and a redress of the balance in the perceived value of research from different regions of the world.

Who should decide how limited healthcare resources are prioritized? Autonomous technology as a compelling alternative to humans.

Who should decide how limited resources are prioritized? We ask this question in a healthcare context where patients must be prioritized according to their need and where advances in autonomous artificial intelligence-based technology offer a compelling alternative to decisions by humans. Qualitative (Study 1a; N = 50) and quantitative (Study 1b; N = 800) analysis identified agency, emotional experience, bias-free, and error-free as four main qualities describing people's perceptions of autonomous computer programs (ACPs) and human staff members (HSMs). Yet, the qualities were not perceived to be possessed equally by HSMs and ACPs. HSMs were endorsed with human qualities of agency and emotional experience, whereas ACPs were perceived as more capable than HSMs of bias- and error-free decision-making. Consequently, better than average (Study 2; N = 371), or relatively better (Studies 3, N = 181; & 4, N = 378), ACP performance, especially on qualities characteristic of ACPs, was sufficient to reverse preferences to favor ACPs over HSMs as the decision makers for how limited healthcare resources should be prioritized. Our findings serve a practical purpose regarding potential barriers to public acceptance of technology, and have theoretical value for our understanding of perceptions of autonomous technologies.

The psychological drivers of self-reported risk preference.

Why are some people more willing than others to take risks? While behavioral tasks (e.g., monetary lotteries) are often regarded as a gold standard for capturing a person's risk preference, recent studies have found stated preferences (e.g., responses to hypothetical scenarios) to exhibit higher reliability, convergent validity, and test-retest stability. Yet, little is known about the psychological drivers of stated preferences. Central to the stated preference approach, the psychological risk-return model conceptualizes a person's propensity to engage in an activity or behavior as a tradeoff between their risk perceptions and expected benefits. To cast a light on the psychological drivers of risk preference within the psychological risk-return framework, in a series of studies participants reported how they evaluated the risks and benefits of activities and their propensity to engage. Individual differences in analytic and intuitive thinking dispositions were also measured. Some participants referred explicitly to risks and rewards of activities when deriving their risk propensity, which was associated with sensitivity to their risk perception and expected benefit ratings. Associations with thinking dispositions indicated that participants who considered risks and rewards were more disposed to analytic thinking. Participants' reports also revealed a broad repertoire of psychological drivers (e.g., intuition, imagination, and feeling) of their evaluations of activities. These were stable over time, associated with thinking dispositions, and influenced their risk preference. The findings provide support for the psychological risk-return model of risk preference. A multifaceted model of preference is urged by the findings to acknowledge the multiple co-occurring psychological drivers of risk preference. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Developmental differences in description-based versus experience-based decision making under risk in children.

The willingness to take a risk is shaped by temperaments and cognitive abilities, both of which develop rapidly during childhood. In the adult developmental literature, a distinction is drawn between description-based tasks, which provide explicit choice-reward information, and experience-based tasks, which require decisions from past experience, each emphasizing different cognitive demands. Although developmental trends have been investigated for both types of decisions, few studies have compared description-based and experience-based decision making in the same sample of children. In the current study, children (N = 112; 5-9 years of age) completed both description-based and experience-based decision tasks tailored for use with young children. Child temperament was reported by the children's primary teacher. Behavioral measures suggested that the willingness to take a risk in a description-based task increased with age, whereas it decreased in an experience-based task. However, computational modeling alongside further inspection of the behavioral data suggested that these opposite developmental trends across the two types of tasks both were associated with related capacities: older (vs. younger) children's higher sensitivity to experienced losses and higher outcome sensitivity to described rewards and losses. From the temperamental characteristics, higher attentional focusing was linked with a higher learning rate on the experience-based task and a bias to accept gambles in the gain domain on the description-based task. Our findings demonstrate the importance of comparing children's behavior across qualitatively different tasks rather than studying a single behavior in isolation.

Implementation of personalised medicine policies in mental healthcare: results from a stated preference study in the UK.

BACKGROUND: Public support for the implementation of personalised medicine policies (PMPs) within routine care is important owing to the high financial costs involved and the potential for redirection of resources from other services. AIMS: We aimed to determine the attributes of a PMP most likely to elicit public support for implementation. We also aimed to determine whether such support differed between a depression PMP and one for cystic fibrosis. METHOD: In a discrete-choice experiment, paired vignettes illustrating both the current model of care (CMoC) and a hypothetical PMP for either depression or cystic fibrosis were presented to a representative sample of the UK public (n = 2804). Each vignette integrated varying attributes, including anticipated therapeutic benefit over CMoC, and the annual cost to the taxpayer. Respondents were invited to express their preference for either the PMP or CMoC within each pair. RESULTS: The financial cost was the most important attribute influencing public support for PMPs. Respondents favoured PMP implementation where it benefited a higher proportion of patients or was anticipated to be more effective than CMoC. A reduction in services for non-eligible patients reduced the likelihood of support for PMPs. Respondents were more willing to fund PMPs for cystic fibrosis than for depression. CONCLUSIONS: Cost is a significant factor in the public's support for PMPs, but essential caveats, such as protection for services available to PMP-ineligible patients, may also apply. Further research should explore the factors contributing to condition-specific nuances in public support for PMPs.

Who tugs at our heart strings? The effect of avatar images on player generosity in the dictator game.

The present research was motivated by a prior study, where several wallets, each containing a photo of either a baby, a puppy, a family, or an elderly couple, were scattered across a city in the United Kingdom. Most of the wallets containing a photo of a baby were returned compared with less than one-third of the wallets containing a photo of an elderly couple. To investigate further, in a series of three studies we examined, using a pseudo online version of the dictator game, possible subtle cues supporting prosocial behaviour by manipulating the type of avatar used by the recipient of the donation made by the "dictator." Overall, it emerged that participants showed significantly higher levels of generosity towards babies and older people, supporting the notion that perceptions of vulnerability and need drive prosocial behaviour.

Hand-in-hand in the golden years: Cognitive interdependence, partner involvement in retirement planning, and the transition into retirement.

This research examined the influence of cognitive interdependence-a mental state reflecting a collective representation of the self-in-relationship-on the anticipation for and experiences with the transition into retirement. Among soon-to-be retirees (Study 1), greater cognitive interdependence was associated with seeing partners as more instrumental to one's goals both pre- and post-retirement, anticipating greater goal alignment post-retirement, and having directly involved partners in retirement planning to a greater extent than those relatively lower in cognitive interdependence. Among recent retirees (Study 2), retrospective cognitive interdependence was associated with post-retirement goal alignment and goal instrumentality, and the extent to which they believed they had directly involved their partners in retirement planning. However, it was post-retirement goal alignment that was associated with greater ease of retirement and subjective well-being. Finally, soon-to-be retirees relatively high in cognitive interdependence responded to concerns about their retirement (i.e., goal discordance and high retirement ambivalence) by wanting to involve their partners in their retirement plans to a greater extent (Study 3). These studies highlight the importance of romantic partners across the lifespan, and how partners might influence retirement planning, the transition to retirement, and well-being among recent retirees.

Combinations of factors contribute to young driver crashes.

INTRODUCTION: Motor-vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in adolescence and young adults. A multitude of factors, including skill level, inexperience, and risk taking behaviors are associated with young drivers' crashes. This research investigated whether combinations of factors underlie crashes involving young drivers. METHOD: A retrospective longitudinal study was conducted on population-wide one- and two-car crashes in Great Britain during years 2005-2012 per driver age (17-20, 21-29, 30-39, 40-49) and sex. Reporting officers provided their assessment of the factors contributing to crashes. Principal components analysis was conducted to identify combinations of factors underlying young drivers' crashes. Factor combinations, including challenging driving conditions, risk taking behaviors, and inexperience were implicated in young drivers' crashes. RESULTS: Combinations of factors reveal new insights into underlying causes of crashes involving young drivers. One combination revealed that slippery roads due to poor weather pose greater risk to young drivers who are inexperienced and likely to exceed the appropriate speed. The findings motivate new policy recommendations, such as educating young drivers about the importance of adjusting their speed to the road conditions.

Understanding Health Risk Comprehension: The Role of Math Anxiety, Subjective Numeracy, and Objective Numeracy.

Background. Numeracy skills are important for medical decision making as lower numeracy is associated with misinterpreting statistical health risks. Math anxiety, characterized by negative emotions about numerical tasks, and lower subjective numeracy (i.e., self-assessments of numerical competence) are also associated with poor risk comprehension. Objective. To explore independent and mediated associations of math anxiety, numerical ability, and subjective numeracy with risk comprehension and to ascertain whether their associations are specific to the health domain. Methods. Objective numeracy was measured with a 14-item test. Math anxiety and subjective numeracy were assessed with self-report scales. Risk comprehension was measured with a 12-item test. In experiment 1, risk comprehension items were limited to scenarios in the health domain. In experiment 2, participants were randomly assigned to receive numerically equivalent risk comprehension items in either a health or nonhealth domain. Results. Linear regression analyses revealed that individuals with higher objective numeracy were more likely to respond correctly to the risk comprehension items, as were individuals with higher subjective numeracy. Higher math anxiety was associated with a lower likelihood of correct responding when controlling for objective numeracy but not when controlling for subjective numeracy. Mediation analyses indicated that math anxiety may undermine risk comprehension in 3 ways, including through 1) objective numeracy, 2) subjective numeracy, and 3) objective and subjective numeracy in serial, with subjective numeracy mediating the association between objective numeracy and risk comprehension. Findings did not differ by domain. Conclusions. Math anxiety, objective numeracy, and subjective numeracy are associated with risk comprehension through unique pathways. Education initiatives for improving health risk comprehension may be most effective if jointly aimed at tackling numerical ability as well as negative emotions and self-evaluations related to numeracy.

Identifying the causes of road traffic collisions: Using police officers' expertise to improve the reporting of contributory factors data.

Worldwide, road crashes are a major course of death and serious injury. Police reports provide a rich source of data on the proximal causes (e.g., impairment by alcohol, failure to look properly) of road traffic collisions. Yet, road safety research has raised concerns about the quality and reliability of police reported data. In the UK crash report form, contributory factors are categorised (e.g., vehicle defects, driver error or reaction) to aid police officers in identifying appropriate factors. However, discord between the classification of contributory factors in crash reports and police officers' own categorical perceptions may lead to misunderstanding, and in turn, misreporting of contributory factors. The current investigation recruited 162 police officers to report their perceptions of the relations among contributory factors in the UK crash report form. Hierarchical clustering analysis was used to identify an optimal category structure based on police officers' perceptions. The clustering analysis identified a classification system with seven or eleven categories of contributory factors, maximising the internal coherence of categories and minimising discord with police officers' perceptions. The findings also yield new insights into police officers' perceptions of crash causation and demonstrate how statistical techniques can be used to inform the design of road traffic collision report forms.

What could go wrong? No evidence of an age-related positivity effect when evaluating outcomes of risky activities.

The age-related positivity effect-a preference for processing positive stimuli over negative stimuli-is posited by socioemotional selectivity theory to reflect a focus on emotional gratification in older age. Yet, the positivity effect has been investigated with stimuli, such as photographs of faces and visual scenes, that have little (to no) association with real-life consequences. Decisions that involve risk require evaluating valenced information that is associated with positive and negative possible outcomes. Older adults take fewer risks than younger adults when their decisions have possible negative consequences. The current research investigated whether the age-related positivity effect extends to cognitive processing of valenced information that is association with real-life consequences. In Experiment 1, participants generated possible outcomes of engaging in risky activities. In Experiment 2, participants identified as quickly as possible whether putative outcomes were relevant to risky activities. Diffusion model analysis was used to model the cognitive processes underlying age-related differences in processing of valenced information. In contrast with the age-related positivity effect, in Experiment 1, younger adults showed an initial focus on retrieving positive outcomes, which shifted to an initial focus on negative outcomes in older age. In Experiment 2, younger adults were faster and more accurate to identify positive than negative outcomes of risky activities-a tendency that dissipated in older age. In conclusion, the age-related positivity effect may not extend to cognitive processing of valenced information that is associated with real-life consequences. It is speculated that while older adults may often prioritize emotional gratification, they possess a repertoire of goals and switch between goals according to the nature of their task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Perception of Risk for Older Adults: Differences in Evaluations for Self versus Others and across Risk Domains.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Proxy decision-making may be flawed by inaccurate perceptions of risk. This may be particularly true when older adults are the targets of the decisions, given the pervasive negative stereotypes about older adults. METHODS: In study 1, individuals aged 18- to 87 years (as target persons) as well as one of their close social partners (as informants) reported on the risks they perceived for the target person in various life domains. Study 2 additionally explored potential differences in how people make risky decisions on behalf of younger and older adult targets. Younger (age 18-35 years) and older (age 60-81 years) adults (as target persons of the risk evaluations) as well as informants reported on risk perceptions and the likelihood of risk-taking for health, financial, and social scenarios concerning the target persons. Congruence between self-rated and informant-rated risk perceptions and risk-taking were computed on a dyadic as well as a group level. RESULTS: Informants' risk perceptions were positively associated with the risks their partners perceived for themselves. Informants and their partners agreed that social risks vary little across adulthood, but they disagreed in terms of recreational, financial, and health risks, and in terms of the decisions they would make. CONCLUSION: Family members, partners, and close friends are sensitive to vulnerabilities of their social partners, but in some domains and according to their partners' age they perceive a greater (or smaller) risk than their partners perceive for themselves. In situations requiring surrogate decision-making, people may decide differently from how their social partners would decide for themselves.

Crash risk by driver age, gender, and time of day using a new exposure methodology.

INTRODUCTION: Concerns have been raised that the nonlinear relation between crashes and travel exposure invalidates the conventional use of crash rates to control for exposure. A new metric of exposure that bears a linear association to crashes was used as basis for calculating unbiased crash risks. This study compared the two methods - conventional crash rates and new adjusted crash risk - for assessing the effect of driver age, gender, and time of day on the risk of crash involvement and crash fatality. METHOD: We used police reports of single-car and multi-car crashes with fatal and nonfatal driver injuries that occurred during 2002-2012 in Great Britain. RESULTS: Conventional crash rates were highest in the youngest age group and declined steeply until age 60-69 years. The adjusted crash risk instead peaked at age 21-29 years and reduced gradually with age. The risk of nighttime driving, especially among teenage drivers, was much smaller when based on adjusted crash risks. Finally, the adjusted fatality risk incurred by elderly drivers remained constant across time of day, suggesting that their risk of sustaining a fatal injury due to a crash is more attributable to excess fragility than to crash seriousness. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate a biasing effect of low travel exposure on conventional crash rates. This implies that conventional methods do not yield meaningful comparisons of crash risk between driver groups and driving conditions of varying exposure to risk. The excess crash rates typically associated with teenage and elderly drivers as well as nighttime driving are attributed in part to overestimation of risk at low travel exposure. Practical Applications: Greater attention should be directed toward crash involvement among drivers in their 20s and 30s as well as younger drivers. Countermeasures should focus on the role of physical vulnerability in fatality risk of elderly drivers.

What are the factors that contribute to road accidents? An assessment of law enforcement views, ordinary drivers' opinions, and road accident records.

What are the main contributing factors to road accidents? Factors such as inexperience, lack of skill, and risk-taking behaviors have been associated with the collisions of young drivers. In contrast, visual, cognitive, and mobility impairment have been associated with the collisions of older drivers. We investigated the main causes of road accidents by drawing on multiple sources: expert views of police officers, lay views of the driving public, and official road accident records. In Studies 1 and 2, police officers and the public were asked about the typical causes of road traffic collisions using hypothetical accident scenarios. In Study 3, we investigated whether the views of police officers and the public about accident causation influence their recall accuracy for factors reported to contribute to hypothetical road accidents. The results show that both expert views of police officers and lay views of the driving public closely approximated the typical factors associated with the collisions of young and older drivers, as determined from official accident records. The results also reveal potential underreporting of factors in existing accident records, identifying possible inadequacies in law enforcement practices for investigating driver distraction, drug and alcohol impairment, and uncorrected or defective eyesight. Our investigation also highlights a need for accident report forms to be continuously reviewed and updated to ensure that contributing factor lists reflect the full range of factors that contribute to road accidents. Finally, the views held by police officers and the public on accident causation influenced their memory recall of factors involved in hypothetical scenarios. These findings indicate that delay in completing accident report forms should be minimised, possibly by use of mobile reporting devices at the accident scene.

Invasive Prenatal Diagnostic Testing Recommendations are Influenced by Maternal Age, Statistical Misconception and Perceived Liability.

Funding policy and medico-legal climate are part of physicians' reality and might permeate clinical decisions. This study evaluates the influence of maternal age and government funding on obstetrician/gynecologist recommendation for invasive prenatal testing (i.e. amniocentesis) for Down syndrome (DS), and its association with the physician's assessment of the risk of liability for medical malpractice unless they recommend amniocentesis. Israeli physicians (N = 171) completed a questionnaire and provided amniocentesis recommendations for women at 18 weeks gestation with normal preliminary screening results, identical except aged 28 and 37. Amniocentesis recommendations were reversed for the younger ('yes' regardless of testing results: 6.4%; 'no' regardless of testing results: 31.6%) versus older woman ('yes' regardless of testing results: 40.9%; 'no' regardless of testing results: 7.0%; χ2 = 71.55, p < .01). About half of the physicians endorsed different recommendations per scenario; of these, 65.6% recommended amniocentesis regardless of testing results for the 37-year-old woman. Physicians routinely performing amniocentesis and those advocating for amniocentesis for all women ≥ age 35 were approximately twice as likely to vary their recommendations per scenario. Physicians who perceived risk of liability for malpractice as large were nearly one-and-a-half times more likely to vary recommendations. The results indicate physicians' recommendations are influenced by maternal age, though age is already incorporated in prenatal DS risk evaluations. The physician's assessment of the risk that they will be sued unless they recommend amniocentesis may contribute to this spurious influence.

Risk-Exposure Density and Mileage Bias in Crash Risk for Older Drivers.

Crash rates per mile indicate a high risk of vehicle crash in older drivers. A reliance on mileage alone may underestimate the risk exposure of older drivers because they tend to avoid highways and travel more on nonfreeways (e.g., urban roads), which present greater hazards. We introduce risk-exposure density as an index of exposure that incorporates mileage, frequency of travel, and travel duration. Population-wide driver fatalities in the United States during 2002-2012 were assessed according to driver age range (in years: 16-20, 21-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, ≥70) and sex. Mileage, frequency, and duration of travel per person were used to assess risk exposure. Mileage-based fatal crash risk increased greatly among male (relative risk (RR) = 1.73; 95% CI: 1.62, 1.83) and female (RR = 2.08; 95% CI: 1.97, 2.19) drivers from ages 60-69 years to ages ≥70 years. Adjusting for their density of risk exposure, fatal crash risk increased only slightly from ages 60-69 years to ages ≥70 years among male (RR = 1.09; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.15) and female (RR = 1.22; 95% CI: 1.16, 1.29) drivers. While ubiquitous in epidemiologic research, mileage-based assessments can produce misleading accounts of driver risk. Risk-exposure density incorporates multiple components of travel and reduces bias caused by any single indicator of risk exposure.

Does Medical Risk Perception and Risk Taking Change with Age?

Across adulthood, people face increasingly more risky medical problems and decisions. However, little is known about changes in medical risk taking across adulthood. Therefore, the current cross-sectional study investigated age-related differences in medical risk taking with N = 317 adults aged 20-77 years using newly developed scenarios to assess medical risk taking, and additional measures designed to evaluate risk-taking behavior in the medical domain. Greater expected benefits on the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale-Medical (DOSPERT-M) predicted more active risk taking, whereas higher perceived risk predicted less active risk taking. Next, we examined differences in active and passive risk taking, where passive risk taking refers to risk taking that is associated with inaction. Age was associated with less passive risk taking, but not with active risk taking, risk perception, or expected benefits on the DOSPERT-M. Participants were overall more likely to opt for taking medical action than not, even more so for a scenario about a vaccine for a deadly flu than for a scenario about a chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Overall, participants were more likely to accept medication (vaccine or chemotherapy) for their child than for themselves. Increasing age was associated with a lower likelihood of accepting the treatment or vaccine for oneself. Taken together, our study provides important insights about changes in medical risk taking across adulthood when people face an increasing number of complex and risky medical decisions.

The Influence of Genotype Information on Psychiatrists' Treatment Recommendations: More Experienced Clinicians Know Better What to Ignore.

BACKGROUND: This study applies attribute nonattendance to medical decision making. We aimed to demonstrate how this type of analysis can be used in medical decision making to assess whether psychiatrists were influenced in their treatment recommendations by information on the genotype of a patient, despite knowing the patient's response to treatment as measured by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. A patient's genetic information may be used to predict their response to therapy; such information, however, becomes redundant, and should not influence decisions, once a clinician knows the patient's actual response to treatment. METHODS: Sixty-seven psychiatrists were presented with patients' pre- or post-treatment scores on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for two hypothetical treatments for schizophrenia. Psychiatrists were also informed whether the patient possessed a genotype linked to hyper-responsiveness to one of the treatments, and were asked to recommend one of these two treatments. Attribute nonattendance assessed whether the information on genotype influenced psychiatrists' treatment recommendations. RESULTS: Years of experience predicted whether psychiatrists were influenced by the genetic information. Psychiatrists with 1 year or less of experience had a 46% probability of considering genetic information, whereas psychiatrists with at least 15 years of experience had a lower probability (7%). CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatrists and other clinicians should be cautious about allowing a patient's genetic information to carry unnecessary weight in their clinical decision making.

Age and Adaptation: Stronger Decision Updating about Real World Risks in Older Age.

In later life, people are faced with a multitude of risky decisions that concern their health, finance, and personal security. Older adults often exercise caution in situations that involve risk. In this research, we asked whether older adults are also more responsive to warnings about potential risk. An answer to this question could reveal a factor underlying increased cautiousness in older age. In Study 1, participants decided whether they would engage in risky activities (e.g., using an ATM machine in the street) in four realistic scenarios about which participants could be expected to have relevant knowledge or experience. They then made posterior decisions after listening to audio extracts of real reports relevant to each activity. In Study 2, we explored the role that emotions play in decision updating. As in Study 1, participants made prior and posterior decisions, with the exception that for each scenario the reports were presented in their original audio format (high emotive) or in a written transcript format (low emotive). Following each posterior decision, participants indicated their emotional valence and arousal responses to the reports. In both studies, older adults engaged in fewer risky activities than younger adults, indicative of increased cautiousness in older age, and exhibited stronger decision updating in response to the reports. Older adults also showed stronger emotional responses to the reports, even though emotional responses did not differ for audio and written transcript formats. Finally, age differences in emotional responses to the reports accounted for age differences in decision updating.