Consumer Fraud: Older People's Perceptions and Experiences

In view of the growing need to address the rights of older people as consumers, this study captures the perceptions and meanings that older people attribute to their experiences as older consumers, particularly regarding consumer fraud, using qualitative-phenomenological methodology based on semi-structured, open-ended interviews with 16 older consumers in Israel. The findings raise distinctive aspects of their experiences, including physical and cognitive characteristics of aging, social response to aging, and involvement of family members in decision making and support. The study concludes by offering several sociolegal policy recommendations for protecting older consumers, directed to them, their family members, professionals interacting with them, and the legal system.

If only I had taken my usual route…: age-related differences in counter-factual thinking

Previous research suggests that young adults can shift between rational and experiential modes of thinking when forming social judgments. The present study examines whether older adults demonstrate this flexibility in thinking. Young and older adults completed an If-only task adapted from Epstein, Lipson, and Huh's (1992 , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 328) examination of individuals' ability to adopt rational or experiential modes of thought while making a judgment about characters who experience a negative event that could have been avoided. Consistent with our expectations for their judgments of the characters, young adults shifted between experiential and rational modes of thought when instructed to do so. Conversely, regardless of the mode of thought being used or the order with which they adopted the different modes of thought (i.e., shifting from experiential to rational in Study 1 and from rational to experiential in Study 2), older adults consistently offered judgments and justifications that reflected a preference for experiential-based thought.