TY - JOUR
T1 - Human development of the ability to learn from bad news
AU - Moutsiana, Christina
AU - Garrett, Neil
AU - Clarke, Richard
AU - Lotto, Beau
AU - Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne
AU - Sharot, Tali
PY - 2013/10/8
Y1 - 2013/10/8
N2 - Humans show a natural tendency to discount bad news while in- corporating good news into beliefs (the “good news–bad news effect”), an effect that may help explain seemingly irrational risk taking. Understanding how this bias develops with age is impor- tant because adolescents are prone to engage in risky behavior; thus, educating them about danger is crucial. We reveal a striking valence-dependent asymmetry in how belief updating develops with age. In the ages tested (9–26 y), younger age was associated with inaccurate updating of beliefs in response to undesirable in- formation regarding vulnerability. In contrast, the ability to up- date beliefs accurately in response to desirable information remained relatively stable with age. This asymmetry was medi- ated by adequate computational use of positive but not negative estimation errors to alter beliefs. The results are important for understanding how belief formation develops and might help ex- plain why adolescents do not respond adequately to warnings.
AB - Humans show a natural tendency to discount bad news while in- corporating good news into beliefs (the “good news–bad news effect”), an effect that may help explain seemingly irrational risk taking. Understanding how this bias develops with age is impor- tant because adolescents are prone to engage in risky behavior; thus, educating them about danger is crucial. We reveal a striking valence-dependent asymmetry in how belief updating develops with age. In the ages tested (9–26 y), younger age was associated with inaccurate updating of beliefs in response to undesirable in- formation regarding vulnerability. In contrast, the ability to up- date beliefs accurately in response to desirable information remained relatively stable with age. This asymmetry was medi- ated by adequate computational use of positive but not negative estimation errors to alter beliefs. The results are important for understanding how belief formation develops and might help ex- plain why adolescents do not respond adequately to warnings.
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1305631110
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1305631110
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1305631110
M3 - Article
VL - 41
SP - 16396
EP - 16401
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
SN - 0027-8424
ER -