By Stephen Beech via SWNS
Older people are more likely to be influenced by others when it comes to finances, according to a new study.
Researchers found that those aged over 60 are more prone to being influenced by other people when it comes to making impulsive decisions relating to money compared to young adults.
The study, led by psychologists at the University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford, explored delayed gratification and how willingness to wait and social influence develop and differ as people grow older.
To test how age affects decision-making, a group of 76 people aged 18 to 36 and 78 aged 60 to 80 were recruited. These participants were carefully matched based on gender, intelligence, and years of education.
The older adults were aging healthily and underwent thorough screening to ensure they were free of dementia or other factors that might affect their decision-making regardless of age.
Senior author Professor Patricia Lockwood, of the University of Birmingham, said: “In an era of an aging population and increasing misinformation, it is crucial to understand how aging affects people’s susceptibility to influence.
“One key area where people may be influenced is in their preferences for receiving money sooner rather than later.
“This knowledge is vital for developing interventions to ensure people make good financial choices across their lives.”
All the participants completed a decision-making task in which they were asked to make a series of choices about two different options: an impulsive one which resulted in receiving a smaller amount of money immediately; or a more restrained one which meant receiving a larger sum after a delay.
Since one of the decisions would be realised as a bonus payment at the end of the experiment, participants knew that their choices had real consequences, motivating them to reveal their genuine financial preferences.
Following their initial decision, the participants then observed and learned about the choices made by two ‘other people’ who had completed the same decision-making task before.
One set of decisions favoured the immediate, more impulsive options, while the other set leaned towards the delayed, more restrained options, compared to the participants’ own decisions.
The participants then made such decisions for themselves once more, allowing the researchers to apply advanced mathematical modeling to precisely quantify the participants’ financial preferences and assess how those preferences were influenced by others.
The results, published in the journal Communications Psychology, showed that older people were more susceptible to social influence, especially from the more impulsive person.
After seeing someone who consistently chooses the impulsive option, older adults were more likely to change their preference to make impulsive decisions themselves.
But, in contrast, younger adults were more resistant to such influence, tending to stick with their original preference – even after seeing someone repeatedly opt for the impulsive option.
The research team also measured people’s self-reported emotional experiences to see if there were differences between people in how susceptible they were to social influence.
Among older adults, those who reported higher levels of affective empathy – a greater ability to feel others’ emotions – and reported being more emotionally motivated were more strongly affected by impulsive social influence.
Lockwood said: ‘These findings highlight that there could be important differences in how older adults are influenced by other people’s financial decisions compared to younger adults.
“If confirmed by further research, they could inform evidence-based programmes that support people to make sensible financial decisions throughout their lives, and realise if their own decisions could be negatively affected by those around them.”
Lead author Dr. Zhilin Su, also of the University of Birmingham, added: “In an era of high levels of misinformation on social media it is crucial to understand the science behind social influence so we can make a meaningful and positive impact on people’s lives.”
