Why older adults become fraud victims more often
Why are older people especially vulnerable to becoming victims of
fraud? A new UCLA study indicates that an important clue may lie in a
particular region of the brain that influences the ability to discern
who is honest and who is trying to deceive us.
Older people, more than younger adults, may fail to interpret an
untrustworthy face as potentially dishonest, the study shows. The reason
for this, the UCLA life scientists found, seems to be that a brain
region called the anterior insula, which is linked to disgust and is
important for discerning untrustworthy faces, is less active in older
adults.
"The consequences of misplaced trust for older adults are severe,"
said Shelley E. Taylor, a distinguished professor of psychology at UCLA
and senior author of the new research, which appears Dec. 3 in the
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "A
recent study estimates that adults over age 60 lost at least $2.9
billion in 2010 to financial exploitation, ranging from home repair
scams to complex financial swindles. This figure represents a 12 percent
increase from 2008.
"Older adults seem to be particularly vulnerable to interpersonal
solicitations, and their reduced sensitivity to cues related to trust
may partially underlie this vulnerability."
"Older adults are more vulnerable. It looks like their skills for
making good financial decisions may be deteriorating as early as their
early-to-mid-50s," said Taylor, a founder of the field of health
psychology who was honored in 2010 with the American Psychological
Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.
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