De onderzoekers van de Universiteit van Stanford lieten 110 mannen en vrouwen van verschillende leeftijd kiezen uit drie aandelen met een verschillende naam. Twee van de aandelen hadden een regelmatige opbrengst, de ander was erg risicovol.

The common perception is that older people are more conservative investors than their younger counterparts. But brain imaging studies combined with economic analysis are causing neuroscientists to question that idea.

Despite our stereotyped notions of the predictable elderly investor, new research suggests certain regions of the brain make for increasingly irrational decisions as investors age.

New studies help explain why, despite having more experience, senior citizens often make unprofitable financial choices

The young are fearless and bold. The old are scared and cautious. That’s the conventional view of how we feel about risk over the course of a lifetime. New research in behavioral economics and neuroscience, however, is complicating this simple picture.

Contrary to the popular notion that young people are reckless, while older people avoid risks, new research shows that in an investment task that involves balancing risk to make the most money, older people make more mistakes than their younger counterparts.

It's not memory loss or senility that leads to mistakes, but increased "noise" in parts of seniors' brains.

Ageing may cloud your financial judgement, thanks to "noise" in an area of the brain critical for predicting pay-offs, suggests a study of people who played an investment game in a brain scanner.

A little stress may help you make good decisions… but a lot will leave you choosing unwisely.