Research on self-reported risk perception and risk taking suggests age-related decrements in risk preference, with older adults less likely to engage in general and domain-specific risk taking (i.e., in financial, health-related, ethical, career, and leisure contexts). Data relating to social risks, however, are inconsistent. With respect to behavioral risk-taking tasks, age-related differences vary depending on task characteristics and older adults’ cognitive capacities. Specifically, older adults are less good at learning to take advantageous risks and take fewer risks when faced with gains, especially financial and mortality-based ones. We contextualize these trends by referencing relevant theoretical frameworks (see Frey et al., 2021 [1]) and by drawing on the COVID-19 pandemic to illustrate recent examples of age-related differences in real-life risk responses.

对自我报告的风险认知和冒险行为的研究表明，风险偏好与年龄相关，老年人不太可能参与一般和特定领域的风险行为（即在金融、健康相关、道德、职业和休闲领域）上下文）。然而，与社会风险相关的数据并不一致。对于行为冒险任务，与年龄相关的差异取决于任务特征和老年人的认知能力。具体来说，老年人不太擅长学习承担有利的风险，并且在面临收益时承担较少的风险，尤其是基于财务和死亡率的收益。我们通过参考相关理论框架（参见 Frey 等人，2021 [ 1 ]）并利用 COVID-19 大流行来说明现实生活中风险应对中与年龄相关的差异的最新例子，从而将这些趋势置于背景中。