1. Older Adults Show More Trust Than Younger Adults Post-Betrayal in Trust/Lottery Game
- Author
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Frazier, I., Lin, T., Sondre, S., Feifel, D., Cohen, R., Fischer, Håkan, Ebner, N.C., Frazier, I., Lin, T., Sondre, S., Feifel, D., Cohen, R., Fischer, Håkan, and Ebner, N.C.
- Abstract
Older adults comprise both the fastest growing population segment in industrialized nations and the majority of political and industry leaders. Regardless of social status, older adults face a constant flow of highly consequential decisions. These decisions are often social in nature, even when they primarily concern health, finance, or politics; in particular, they often require putting trust in others. However, older adults’ social decision making processes relating to trust have not been well researched yet. Trust is an important aspect of maintaining social supports and maintenance of social supports is health protective. This is of particular concern in older adults as aging is linked to increased social loss, isolation, and loneliness. Evidence has indicated that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) is linked to several aspects of socioemotional functioning including trust. There is emerging evidence of a possible deficit in OT in older, specifically male, adults. Intranasally administered OT before a trust game has resulted in young adults acting in a more trusting, but not gullible manner. However, the potential effects of OT administration on trust game performance in older adults is unknown. We compared older (N = 54, 56% female) and younger adults’ (N = 48, 48% female) performance on a Trust/Lottery game after intranasal administration of either OT or placebo (P). Participants played the role of investors with ostensible same age social partners (trust) or a computer (lottery). At the beginning of each game investors received monetary units to invest in increments. They were instructed that if money was sent it would be tripled and then the investee (ostensible social partner) would be able to send an amount, or none, back or the lottery would be played (in the lottery condition). The probabilities of the trustee returning behavior in both the trust and lottery conditions were drawn from the same probability distributions, thus the participants faced the same o
- Published
- 2017