Age-related differences in the social associative learning of trust information

Abstract

Trust is a key component of social interaction. Older adults, however, often exhibit excessive trust relative to younger adults. One explanation is that older adults may learn to trust differently than younger adults. Here, we examine how younger (N = 33) and older adults (N = 30) learn to trust over time. Participants completed a classic iterative trust game with 3 partners. Younger and older adults shared similar amounts but differed in how they shared money. Compared to younger adults, older adults invested more with untrustworthy partners and less with trustworthy partners. As a group, older adults displayed less learning than younger adults. However, computational modeling suggests that this is not because older adults learn differently from positive and negative feedback than younger adults. Model-based fMRI analyses revealed several age- and learning-related differences in neural processing. Specifically, we found that older learners (N = 19), relative to older non-learners (N = 11), had greater reputation-related activity in metalizing/memory areas while making their decisions. Collectively, these findings suggest that older adult learners use social cues differently from non-learners.