Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Brain-Based Explanation For Why Old People Get Scammed

Posted by timothy on from the this-story-won't-fool-my-dad-of-course dept.

sciencehabit writes "Despite long experience with the ways of the world, older people are especially vulnerable to fraud. According to the Federal Trade Commission, up to 80% of scam victims are over 65. One explanation may lie in a brain region that serves as a built-in crook detector. Called the anterior insula, this structure — which fires up in response to the face of an unsavory character — is less active in older people, possibly making them less cagey than younger folks, a new study finds."

2 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Generation Gap? by kryliss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Only during the early TV years did everyone seem so honest and wonderful. Leave it to Beaver, My Three Sons and about a million other goody goody TV shows makes the newer generations think that life back then was so golly gee whiz good. There never was a Mayberry and people were just as dishonest then as they are now, the internet just allows us to see it more often.

    --
    --- If the bible proves the existence of God, then Superman comics prove the existence of Superman.
  2. Re:Generation Gap? by h4rr4r · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If anything people were less honest. In the 1950s lots of crimes went totally unreported and still their crime rates where rather high. Physical, mental or sexual abuse of family members was very often unreported. In most states a wife could not even report a rape by her husband as no such crime existed.

    The homicide rate today for the USA is lower than it was in 1960.