Teens more daring when in group

Researchers at the Temple University in Philadelphia found teens are five times more likely to be in a car accident when in a group than when driving alone, and they are more likely to commit a crime in a group.

The researchers, who analysed brain activity of a group of teenagers as they made decisions with inherent risks alone and with peers, found that when teens are with friends they are more susceptible to the potential rewards of a risk than they are when they are alone.

“We know that in the real world, teenagers take more risks when with their friends. This is the first study to identify the underlying process,” said Dr Laurence Steinberg, a developmental psychologist and co-author of the study.

“Preventable, risky behaviours—such as binge drinking, cigarette smoking and careless driving—present the greatest threat to the well-being of young people in industrialised societies,” he was quoted as saying by LiveScience.

Lead researcher Dr Jason Chein, a neuroscientist at the university, said: “Our findings may be helpful in developing ways to intervene and reduce adolescent risk taking.”

For their study, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at brain activity in young adults and adults as they made decisions in a simulated driving game. Participants were forced to make a decision about whether to stop at a yellow light when they came to an intersection or run through the intersection and risk colliding with another vehicle.

Taking the risk to run through the yellow light offered the reward of moving through the intersection more quickly, but also the consequence of a crash, which added a significant delay.

While adolescents and older participants behaved comparably while playing the game alone, it was found that the adolescents who knew that their friends were watching took a greater number of risks.

More significantly, according to Chein, the brain regions associated with reward showed greater activation when the adolescents knew they were being observed by peers.

“These results suggest that the presence of peers does not impact the evaluation of the risk but rather heightens sensitivity in the brain to the potential upside of a risky decision,” he said.

“If the presence of friends had been simply a distraction to the participant, then we would have seen an impact on the brain’s executive function. But that’s not what found.”
Their new findings were published in the journal Developmental Science.