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Ciranka S, Hertwig R. Environmental statistics and experience shape risk-taking across adolescence. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:1123-1134. [PMID: 37739921 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.08.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2023] [Revised: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 09/24/2023]
Abstract
Adolescents are often portrayed as reckless risk-takers because of their immature brains. Recent research has cast doubt on this portrayal, identifying the environment as a moderator of risk-taking. However, the key features of environments that drive risk-taking behaviors are often underspecified. We call for greater attention to the environment by drawing on research showing that its statistical structure impacts future risk-taking as people learn from outcomes they experience after taking a risk. This opinion shows that adolescents are unlikely to experience harm from many risks because environmental statistics are skewed and favor safe experiences. Environmental statistics and experience suggest entry points for policy interventions by carefully timing risk warnings and leveraging peers' potential to shape the statistics of rewarding experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Ciranka
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
| | - Ralph Hertwig
- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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2
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Sadza A, Daalmans S, Rozendaal E, Buijzen M. Risk on Demand? A Quantitative Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Risky Health Behaviors in Popular on Demand Content. HEALTH COMMUNICATION 2023:1-10. [PMID: 37691182 DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2023.2255762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
Video on Demand (VOD) has become the most popular way for adolescent viewers to consume entertainment media, often without parental supervision. Given the potential for modeling, this study aims to investigate the prevalence and nature with which risky health behaviors are portrayed in popular VOD programs. A quantitative content analysis of trending programs (N = 529) from popular VOD-platforms investigated the prevalence, co-occurrence, tone, social context, and consequences with which alcohol use, tobacco use, drug use, unsafe sexual behavior, reckless behavior, and self-harm behaviors are portrayed in popular VOD programs. In addition, we analyzed the demographic characteristics of the characters who portrayed the risk behaviors Risk behaviors were portrayed frequently, with substance use behaviors (i.e. alcohol, smoking, drugs) being most prevalent and most likely to co-occur. Reckless behavior, self-harm behaviors, and explicitly unsafe sexual behaviors were much less common. Findings show that risk behavior was often portrayed in a normalized manner, with alcohol and smoking, in particular, being portrayed as neutral behaviors that rarely have consequences. Most risk-taking characters were (young) adult white males, mirroring the general overrepresentation of this demographic in popular media. Risk behavior was rarely problematized in popular on demand content. Potential consequences for adolescent viewers are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Sadza
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University
| | | | - Esther Rozendaal
- Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam
| | - Moniek Buijzen
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University
- Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam
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Towner E, Chierchia G, Blakemore SJ. Sensitivity and specificity in affective and social learning in adolescence. Trends Cogn Sci 2023:S1364-6613(23)00092-X. [PMID: 37198089 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Revised: 03/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Adolescence is a period of heightened affective and social sensitivity. In this review we address how this increased sensitivity influences associative learning. Based on recent evidence from human and rodent studies, as well as advances in computational biology, we suggest that, compared to other age groups, adolescents show features of heightened Pavlovian learning but tend to perform worse than adults at instrumental learning. Because Pavlovian learning does not involve decision-making, whereas instrumental learning does, we propose that these developmental differences might be due to heightened sensitivity to rewards and threats in adolescence, coupled with a lower specificity of responding. We discuss the implications of these findings for adolescent mental health and education.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Towner
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Gabriele Chierchia
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, UK
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Wittmann MK, Scheuplein M, Gibbons SG, Noonan MP. Local and global reward learning in the lateral frontal cortex show differential development during human adolescence. PLoS Biol 2023; 21:e3002010. [PMID: 36862726 PMCID: PMC10013901 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Revised: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Reward-guided choice is fundamental for adaptive behaviour and depends on several component processes supported by prefrontal cortex. Here, across three studies, we show that two such component processes, linking reward to specific choices and estimating the global reward state, develop during human adolescence and are linked to the lateral portions of the prefrontal cortex. These processes reflect the assignment of rewards contingently to local choices, or noncontingently, to choices that make up the global reward history. Using matched experimental tasks and analysis platforms, we show the influence of both mechanisms increase during adolescence (study 1) and that lesions to lateral frontal cortex (that included and/or disconnected both orbitofrontal and insula cortex) in human adult patients (study 2) and macaque monkeys (study 3) impair both local and global reward learning. Developmental effects were distinguishable from the influence of a decision bias on choice behaviour, known to depend on medial prefrontal cortex. Differences in local and global assignments of reward to choices across adolescence, in the context of delayed grey matter maturation of the lateral orbitofrontal and anterior insula cortex, may underlie changes in adaptive behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco K. Wittmann
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Maximilian Scheuplein
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Institute of Education and Child Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Sophie G. Gibbons
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, United Kingdom
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - MaryAnn P. Noonan
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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van Duijvenvoorde ACK, van Hoorn J, Blankenstein NE. Risks and rewards in adolescent decision-making. Curr Opin Psychol 2022; 48:101457. [PMID: 36088823 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Revised: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Adolescent decision-making has been characterized as risky, and a heightened reward sensitivity may be one of the aspects contributing to riskier choice-behavior. Previous studies have targeted reward-sensitivity in adolescence and the neurobiological mechanisms of reward processing in the adolescent brain. In recent examples, researchers aim to disentangle the contributions of risk- and reward-sensitivity to adolescent risk-taking. Here, we discuss recent findings of adolescent's risk preferences and the associated neural mechanisms. We highlight potential frameworks that target individual differences in risk preferences in an effort to understand adolescent risk-taking, and with an ultimate goal of leveraging undesirable levels of risk taking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna C K van Duijvenvoorde
- Leiden University, Dept of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands.
| | - Jorien van Hoorn
- Leiden University, Dept of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands; Levvel, Academic Center for Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Neeltje E Blankenstein
- Leiden University, Dept of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands
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Hofmans L, van den Bos W. Social learning across adolescence: A Bayesian neurocognitive perspective. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2022; 58:101151. [PMID: 36183664 PMCID: PMC9526184 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Revised: 09/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Adolescence is a period of social re-orientation in which we are generally more prone to peer influence and the updating of our beliefs based on social information, also called social learning, than in any other stage of our life. However, how do we know when to use social information and whose information to use and how does this ability develop across adolescence? Here, we review the social learning literature from a behavioral, neural and computational viewpoint, focusing on the development of brain systems related to executive functioning, value-based decision-making and social cognition. We put forward a Bayesian reinforcement learning framework that incorporates social learning about value associated with particular behavior and uncertainty in our environment and experiences. We discuss how this framework can inform us about developmental changes in social learning, including how the assessment of uncertainty and the ability to adaptively discriminate between information from different social sources change across adolescence. By combining reward-based decision-making in the domains of both informational and normative influence, this framework explains both negative and positive social peer influence in adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lieke Hofmans
- Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Correspondence to: Nieuwe Achtergracht 129, room G1.05, 1018WS Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Wouter van den Bos
- Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
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Ciranka S, van den Bos W. Adolescent risk-taking in the context of exploration and social influence. DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.dr.2021.100979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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The importance of belonging and the avoidance of social risk taking in adolescence. DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.dr.2021.100981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
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