I guess that articles published in Neurobiology of Aging don't normally get wide press coverage. But research carried out at Duke University has attracted attention because it seems to support the traditional belief that older is wiser. The research involved scanning the brains of volunteers while they looked at pictures intended to stimulate various emotional responses. The volunteers comprised 2 groups of healthy women, one aged around 25 and the other aged around 70. The study concluded that the old brains responded to emotional stimuli in much the same way as the young brains, but they had different mechanisms for evaluating and controlling the response.

Risky Decisions

A risky decision is one that has to be made in a state of uncertainty. Most of the decisions we make are risky in this sense. When we don't have all the facts, we use our emotions to help decide what to do. Sometimes we let our emotions decide even when we do have all the facts!

Wisdom is getting life in perspective. It has been suggested that elders make better decisions because of their greater experience. They have been around longer so they have a better grasp of the probabilities of rare events. But the Duke research suggests that it is more than this. It seems that the older brain is better adapted to dealing with risky decisions. And that means most decisions. I'm not aware of any psychological studies that compare decision-making on the basis of age. That could be interesting.

Respect for Elders

Since ancient times, elders have tended to be leaders of the community. The word 'senate' comes from the same Latin source as 'senior' and 'senile'. The word 'sheikh' means an old man. Even 'priest' comes from the Greek word presbyteros, meaning an elder. Peter Gabriel, musician and activist, and one of the founders of The Elders said:

"In traditional societies, the elders always had a role in conflict resolution, long-term thinking and applying wisdom wherever it was needed. We are moving to this global village and yet we don’t have our global elders."

Lack of respect for elders is often portrayed as a modern phenomenon, but this is not the case. The Bible has plenty of examples. In the First Book of Kings, King Rehoboam is criticized for rejecting the advice of the elders and following the advice of his peers.

Is Wisdom Female?

The Greek word for wisdom is sophia, personified in ancient times by the goddess Sophia. The word 'philosophy' means 'love of wisdom'. The Bible also portrays Wisdom in the feminine. Does this mean that we should consider women to be wiser than men? Perhaps women are better at the long-term thinking. However, studies of risky decision making have found that women are more influenced by emotions and moods than men are. Duke University used women for their brain-scan study but they don't say why. Perhaps it was simply based on the availability of a group of healthy 70-year-olds!