Since the brain makes decisions, the myth “Teens behave irresponsibly because of their immature brains” may not be actually a myth, but a true phenomenon. However, how people interpret this phenomenon may be problematic.
Interpretation 1: The teenage brain cannot develop to the adult level no matter what until they become a certain age.
Interpretation 2: No matter how parents and school teach teens to behave, they cannot behave like adults.
Interpretation 3: All teens from the age of puberty to 19 years-old, are coherently less capable of responsible decision making than adults.
Interpretation 4: Adults are coherently better at making decisions, so they should be responsible for their children’s life decisions.
Interpretation 5: “The only one who knew the danger of the teenage brain is the auto insurance industry, which imposes considerably high premium on those who are under 25” (A famous joke among neuroscientists)
Possible impacts of these interpretations are discussed in the post Most Important Misunderstanding.
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I have actually never heard about this myth before you decided to tackle it for the project. But the way that you describe it makes it clear that it is very much present in day to day life. It seems like once an adult would hear this myth they would hold on to it and therefore never trust a teen to make an important decision. I am interested to read on and see how they went about doing the studies to test this kind of myth.
ReplyDeleteGood Work Junichi!