The Research On The Risk Decision Making Of The Older Adults And Its Influence Factors

A prevalent stereotype is that people become less risk taking and more cautious as they get older. However, in laboratory studies, finding are mixed and some studies even show the older adults are more risky. What characteristics do the older have in risk-taking? This question is very important and meaningful, because it related to the olders’ various aspects from the heathy problem, risk investment advice to the retirement planning and so on.This research included two parts. The first part studied the risk-taking characteristics of the older adults. It discussed if the elderly’s decision-making changes under different expectations and option types through three kinds of question types, and discussed the differences between the elderly and younger adults in risk taking. The second part studied how the psychological distance, power, and self-esteem influence the risk-taking of the older adults and age differences. The results were as follows.Firstly, the older adults and younger adults all exhibited "the Certainty Effect" in risk decision-making, and the Certainty Effect were general to the older adults. Here, compared with younger adults, the older adults exhibited more risk aversion in the domain of gains and more risk seeking in the domain of losses. Moreover, the age differences were not affected by the type of expectations and options.Secondly, the older adults and younger people were sensitive to expectations, which also indicated that older people in decision-making took into account the changes of the expectations.Thirdly, the psychological distance affected the older adults’ decisions, and had less impact on the age differences. The older adults’ decision-making had more obvious differences in the psychological distance than the younger adults’. The older used the high-level construct to make decisions for their remotest persons, while the decision is adjust by the degree of intimacy.Fourthly, the sense of power affected the older adults’ decisions, and had less impact on the age differences. The older and the younger adults all showed that people in high-level power sense took more risk than people in the low-level power sense and the differences were significant in the domain of gains. However, there were no differences in the domain of losses.Fifthly, the self-esteem affected the older adults’decisions, and had less impact on the age differences. The older and the young adults all showed that people in high-level self-esteem took more risk than people in the low-level self-esteem and the differences were significant in the domain of gains. However, there were no differences in the domain of losses.