Percepcja i podejmowanie ryzyka u dzieci

Abstract

The research investigates how participants’ age infl uences the subjective judgements of probability and risky decisions making. 140 people aged 6-22 participated in the study. The results show that 6-7 year-olds were unable to differentiate between probabilities. Only 11-13 years old children appeared to distinguish the variation in probabilities, although only in lotteries in the domain of gains. All the judgements of probabilities were strongly overestimated both in children and adults. The research also shows that age infl uences risk taking. Adults were more risk averse in the domain of gains than losses, while children were more risk averse for losses. Due to the fact that the youngest children did not understand the very concept of probability, their choices were not sensitive to the changes in the probability, and therefore also to the changes of the expected values. Risky choices made by the youngest children were independent from the size of gains/losses or probability, while the choices of 9-10 year-olds were affected only by the size of gains/losses. Among 11-13 yearolds and adults the risky choices were infl uenced by both size of gain/loss and the probability as well as their combination (expected value).