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A Brain-Based Explanation For Why Old People Get Scammed
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."
Fraud, he feared
Lay in the beard
So cash from Corzine
To SuperPAC he steered.
Burma Shave
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Just sayin'... the guy looks like such a crook; I always wondered how he could get supporters.
...but I'm a misanthropic asshole who resents the outsized influence the elderly have on America's political system, and wish we could just bring on the death panels and be done with it.
... they have sat around alone and rot their brains for decades in front of a brainwashing, passive TV instead of doing and creating things. I'm not saying it's necessarily "their fault", but I think this is the reason. I am also fully convinced that you get brain damage from watching the TV programmes of today, not to mention the advertisements.
It could be that us younger folk have been taught from day one not to believe a damn thing anyone says online.
Maybe they just grew up at a time when people were more honest?
I'm thinking of going into business with a Nigerian Prince!
old people are old. details at 10pm.
...these are the same people who used to see deals on infomercials and think they had to buy it right then and there.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
By the time you're over 65 you've been lied to soooooo many times that it doesn't even register any more.
They're also (as a general populace) more lonely, less educated, more dependent on repairmen to do tasks for them, and more financially well-off than their younger counterparts.
They're basically the perfect soup for travelers, gypsy trash, and other assorted con-artist-pieces-of-shit to take advantage of. Makes me want to go back to the days when a tall tree and short noose waited for that filth when they got caught. There is very little in this world lower than someone willing to take advantage of the elderly.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
All brain functions are in decline throughout most of our lives, I doubt any one specific area has much more of an impact than any other. Judgement, trust, memory, reasoning, caution, etc.
Up to a certain point, sheer experience helps prevent older folks from being scammed, but somewhere there's going to be a tipping point in most people's cognitive skills in general that make them an easier mark. A headline like "Elderly found to be easier to scam!" just gets "no kidding!" from me.
I'd also wager the average 85 yr old is easier to coax into a stranger's car than the average 5 yr old.
I'm sure I'll get a reply from one or two telling me their Aunt Gracie was sharp as a whip till the day she died at 90, and you'll run into that from time to time, but those people are by far the exception to the rule.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
As we all know, the human cerebral cortex is heavily wrinkled, allowing a very large sheet of neural network to fit inside the skull.
During the aging process, the wrinkles gradually diffuse through the skull, collecting on the skin surface, and leaving the cerebral cortex much less efficiently packed. This, obviously, is why old people are wrinkly and suffer cognitive decline. What theory could be simpler or more parsimonious?
Called the anterior insula, this structure — which fires up in response to the face of an unsavory character
Just because someone's shady looking, does not mean they're a thief. The inverse holds true as well.
Truth be told, most-if-not-all of us have been robbed of far more by white guys in suits, rather than black guys in hoodies.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
This might also explain why so many of them watch Fox News and buy stupid things on TV. In fact, the association between right wing causes and commercial scams is well known.
Without picking on any network in particular, according to Nielson one network has an average viewer age over 65. Surprisingly, the competing networks are not wildly younger wrt age demos.
Not the source but a nice overview of the demographics:
http://www.quora.com/Fox-News-cable-news-network/What-are-the-demographics-of-Fox-News-viewers
Could certainly be considered trollish, I know. But it's an interesting hypothesis nonetheless.
Shits always changing, new rules, new procedures, new technology...
People generally fight these changes at first and then come to accept them over time either form being worn down or finally accepting that they have no control over the matter, as with government bureaucracies.
As people age, complex thought becomes more difficult and cloudy. Memory fades and the willingness to learn the new procedure, rules or tech declines. Combine this with a lifetime of learning that you may as well accept it because you're going to lose the fight and you have elderly people far more willing to accept shady come-ons as legit.
e.g. I regularly get snail mail "disguised" to look official replete with very official looking seals and logos that claim new government fees or programs for which I should sign up for. In the past I spotted them immediately and tossed them, but increasingly I'm having to give them a second or third look before deciding they are scams.
One final note, how many twenty-somethings get scammed and then report it to the FTC. I suspect they just suck it up because their bitch ass is embarrassed.
If they think the elderly are easy, they haven't met doctors, newly successful pro athletes and salesmen of all kinds.
I am not a crackpot.
I've found in my life that kids 15 and under fall for scams much more often than senior citizens. Think 'fad' if you don't agree. Fad is after all, just a slow scam. Got any beany babies?
I think this article also explains why the older parts of the population have a better percentage turnout for voting ;)
"A question to be addressed in future research, she says, is whether decreased activity in the insula is the cause or the effect of older peoples' more positive outlook. "It may be that older people engage with the world in a certain way and this is reflected in the brain activity."
"
I wonder if anyone bothered to check whether increased activity in the anterior insula correlated with increased adrenalin production - as in 'I'm going to have to flee from/fight with this threat, so lets ramp up the activation and pay lots of attention to what my body's doing"
So that explains why MS sales always want to talk to the senior VP/CIO/... they know they are suckers.
20 years ago I would have said this article was complete bunk. But today it seems quite reasonable!
This would explain how so many grandparents like their grandchildren
ya know old timers disease and people can then prey on that
one reason why if i ever seesuch in real life i will beat the fucking tar out of you
so remember if you get caught your gonna get PAIN
Because sometimes not only do robots attack, they also lie.
whose bearer's are no longer equipped to use them.
to do with Wilford Brimley bias?
"Hello, is Nancy at home? Hi Nancy, this is TV's Wilford Brimley, just checking to see if you're enjoying your oatmeal. Yes, yes, its a pleasure to meet you too. Listen, Nancy, do you have a credit or debit card or bank routing number handy? You do? Good..."
I wonder if this is correlated or even causality related to older people having a much-reduced circle of close friends?
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
You might scam everyone else in the neighborhood Mr. Gnome but you won't get me. Now get off my lawn!
You make it sound like the 1950s were like syria today.
Totally weird.
I'm not a lawyer, so maybe there's another law that covers of what I'm thinking, but notice the part which says, "not married".
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.44.079
(1) A person is guilty of rape of a child in the third degree when the person has sexual intercourse with another who is at least fourteen years old but less than sixteen years old and not married to the perpetrator and the perpetrator is at least forty-eight months older than the victim.
Old people steel like fucking ravens! Im not sure if its the dementia or all the layers of unwashed gunk on their bodies, but they sure do love to steal things, EVEN SCRAPS OF FOOD!!
Yes ive worked with old people, and no its not hospital like place. but a fucking Cafe for old people.
We now cant have the nice silverware out, as they fucking steal that too.
TFA says that 80% of victims of scam artists are elderly.
Depending on what counts as a "scam"–some people think the lottery is a big one–there are way too many other reasons beyond something wrong with their brains to make this explanation complete or even useful.
For example, a much better and simpler explanation is that the older you are the more likely you are to be socially isolated. Socially isolated people are easier prey for scammers.
In fact, the results reported in TFA more usefully support something that trial lawyers have believed for a long time: young people see the world black and white, while the older you get the more it all runs to grey. So, depending on their case, they pack the jury accordingly.
Most scammers do not look like the scammers portrayed in fiction but look much more like ordinary people. If the detetection of scammers is based on looks I would expect that younger people would be scammed much more frequently because they watch much more fiction, and thus have a wrong mental picture of how a scammer looks like, and have much less life experience.