Older workers 'better at decision-making'

Older decision makers are more conscientious — careful and organized — as compared to those in younger age groups, a new study has revealed.

More broadly, the study by MetLife Mature Market Institute and the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas indicates that aging does not correlate with deteriorating ability to think for ourselves, contrary to conventional wisdom that suggests cognitive function that begins to decline in the mid-40s.

The study shows that older decision makers are as logically consistent as younger ones and that increased age alone was not a key factor in predicting impaired decision-making capacity, Fox News reported.

In addition, the researchers discovered that healthy adults in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who demonstrated smart decision-making also excelled at strategic learning, which is the ability to sift more important information from the less important.

The research found that seniors who excel in strategic learning are also more likely to make sound financial decisions.

Specifically, those study participants who performed well in sifting important information on the strategic learning measure made more logically consistent financial decisions, while those who didn't perform as well were less logically consistent and showed more bias toward riskier choices that had the potential for either financial gain or loss.

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