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This symposium highlights strengths and vulnerabilities of the aging decision-maker. Using national samples from Sweden and the U.K., and community samples from the U.S, the presentations show that patterns of age differences in decision-making depend on task type and context. Emotional and experiential skills that improve with age can facilitate good decision making despite age-related cognitive declines. Using a Swedish population-based sample, Del Missier and Mäntylä found that age-related declines in cognitively-demanding decision-making tasks were explained by age decrements in working and episodic memory, even after accounting for deficits in sensory functioning and processing speed. Other aspects of decision-making performance were spared or improved with age. Using a national sample from the U.K., Eberhardt, Bruine de Bruin, and Strough found age-related improvements in performance on four financial decision-making tasks. These improvements were explained by older adults’ increased experience and better emotion regulation. Shook, Strough, Delaney, Ford, and Barker examined whether older and younger adults’ judged a patient’s medical treatment decision differently depending on its success or failure. In their community-dwelling U.S. sample, older adults were less biased by treatment outcomes than younger adults because they evaluated failed treatments more positively. Loeckenhoff, Riffin, and Ratner examined age differences in decisions about joint replacement in a community sample of U.S. patients. Willingness to have surgery was negatively associated with age, and treatment expectations, time horizons, and attitudes toward risk may be contributing factors. Hess integrates these findings with existing research on aging and decision making and offers directions for future research.
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