Department of Psychology, Stanford University.
Department of Psychology, Humboldt University Berlin.
Psychol Aging. 2018 Mar;33(2):325-337. doi: 10.1037/pag0000228.
Financial fraud is a societal problem for adults of all ages, but financial losses are especially damaging to older adults who typically live on fixed incomes and have less time to recoup losses. Persuasion tactics used by fraud perpetrators often elicit high levels of emotional arousal; thus, studying emotional arousal may help to identify the conditions under which individuals are particularly susceptible to fraud. We examined whether inducing high-arousal positive (HAP) and high-arousal negative (HAN) emotions increased susceptibility to fraud. Older (ages 65 to 85) and younger (ages 30 to 40) adults were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 emotional arousal conditions in a laboratory task: HAP, HAN, or low arousal (LA). Fraud susceptibility was assessed through participants' responses to misleading advertisements. Both HAP and HAN emotions were successfully induced in older and younger participants. For participants who exhibited the intended induced emotional arousal, both the HAP and HAN conditions, relative to the LA condition, significantly increased participants' reported intention to purchase falsely advertised items. These effects did not differ significantly between older and younger adults and were mitigated in participants who did not exhibit the intended emotional arousal. However, irrespective of the emotional arousal condition to which older adults were assigned (HAP, HAN, or LA), they reported greater purchase intention than did younger adults. These results inform the literature on fraud susceptibility and aging. Educating consumers to postpone financial decisions until they are in calm emotional states may protect against this common persuasion tactic. (PsycINFO Database Record
财务欺诈是一个涉及各个年龄段成年人的社会问题，但财务损失对通常依靠固定收入生活、恢复损失时间较少的老年群体尤为不利。欺诈者使用的说服策略通常会引起高度的情绪唤醒；因此，研究情绪唤醒可能有助于确定个体特别容易受到欺诈的条件。我们研究了高唤醒积极情绪（HAP）和高唤醒消极情绪（HAN）是否会增加欺诈的易感性。在一项实验室任务中，将年龄在 65 至 85 岁之间的老年人和年龄在 30 至 40 岁之间的年轻人随机分配到 3 种情绪唤醒条件之一：HAP、HAN 或低唤醒（LA）。通过参与者对误导性广告的反应来评估欺诈易感性。在老年人和年轻人参与者中，成功地诱发了 HAP 和 HAN 情绪。对于表现出预期诱导情绪唤醒的参与者，与 LA 条件相比，HAP 和 HAN 条件都显著增加了参与者购买虚假广告商品的意愿。这些影响在老年人和年轻人之间没有显著差异，并且在没有表现出预期情绪唤醒的参与者中减轻了这些影响。然而，无论老年人被分配到哪种情绪唤醒条件（HAP、HAN 或 LA），他们报告的购买意愿都大于年轻人。这些结果为欺诈易感性和老龄化的文献提供了信息。教育消费者在冷静的情绪状态下推迟财务决策，可能有助于防止这种常见的说服策略。
