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Poor Decision Making Among Older Adults Is Related to Elevated Levels of Neuroticism

  • Original Article
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Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

A well-studied index of reasoning and decision making is the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The IGT possesses many features important to medical decision making, such as weighing risks and benefits, dealing with unknown outcomes, and making decisions under uncertainty.

Purpose

There exists a great deal of individual variability on the IGT, particularly among older adults, and the present study examines the role of personality in IGT performance. We explored which of the five-factor model of personality traits were predictive of decision-making performance, after controlling for relevant demographic variables.

Methods

One hundred and fifty-two healthy cognitively intact adults (aged 26–85) were individually administered the IGT and the NEO Five-Factory Inventory.

Results

In the older adults, but not the younger, higher NEO neuroticism was associated with poorer IGT performance.

Conclusions

Our findings are discussed in the context of how stress may impact cognitive performance and cause dysfunction of neural systems in the brain important for decision making.

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Notes

  1. A borderline subgroup also exists, performing neither advantageously nor disadvantageously on the IGT, and, as a result, they have not been studied further.

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Acknowledgements

Preparation of this article was supported by a National Institute on Aging Career Development Award to Natalie L. Denburg (K01 AG022033), by fellowship funding from the Iowa Scottish Rite Masonic Foundation, and by an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics cooperative agreement #5 U18 HSO16094.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Division of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, USA

    N. L. Denburg Ph.D., T. H. Yamada B.A., D. M. Shivapour B.S., A. R. Kaup B.S., A. LaLoggia B.A. & D. Tranel Ph.D.

  2. Decision Research, Eugene, OR, USA

    J. A. Weller Ph.D.

  3. Department of Marketing, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    C. A. Cole Ph.D.

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    A. Bechara Ph.D.

  5. Department of Neurology, #2007 RCP, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA, 52242-1053, USA

    N. L. Denburg Ph.D.

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  1. N. L. Denburg Ph.D.
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  2. J. A. Weller Ph.D.
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  3. T. H. Yamada B.A.
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  4. D. M. Shivapour B.S.
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  5. A. R. Kaup B.S.
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  6. A. LaLoggia B.A.
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  7. C. A. Cole Ph.D.
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  8. D. Tranel Ph.D.
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  9. A. Bechara Ph.D.
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Correspondence to N. L. Denburg Ph.D..

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Denburg, N.L., Weller, J.A., Yamada, T.H. et al. Poor Decision Making Among Older Adults Is Related to Elevated Levels of Neuroticism. ann. behav. med. 37, 164–172 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-009-9094-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-009-9094-7

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