Can't Read my Broker Face: Learning about Trustworthiness with Age

Abstract

Objectives We assessed how age impacted learning who to trust, and the extent to which this type of learning relied on explicit memory. In contrast to prior studies, target faces were neutral without prior reputational information. Method Younger (YA) and older adults (OA) made investment decisions for 36 brokers, who yielded a good, neutral, or bad outcome. Brokers were encountered three times to measure adaptive learning. After the investment task, participants completed a surprise explicit source memory test for brokers. Results Although YA and OA learned to distinguish good and bad brokers from neutral ones, OA did not learn the brokers' behavior as well as younger adults. In addition, explicit source memory was highly correlated with investment decisions, although less so for good brokers for older than younger adults. Discussion Findings extend prior work by establishing that OA impairments in learning who to trust extend to neutral faces, and highlighting the role of explicit memory in investment performance. Future work should vary the task demands to explore the contribution of explicit and implicit processes.