At http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121001151024.htm

Tolerance for Ambiguity Explains Adolescents' Penchant for Risky Behaviors

ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2012) — It is widely believed that adolescents engage in risky behaviors because of an innate tolerance for risks, but a study by researchers at New York University, Yale's School of Medicine, and Fordham University has found this is not the case.

A study by researchers at NYU, Yale's School of Medicine, and Fordham University shows adolescents appear to differ from their older peers in the taste for the uncertain. When faced with situations that have highly uncertain outcomes, most age groups react with distaste; adolescents, by contrast, often find these uncertain situations quite tolerable. Rather than having a taste for risk, as is commonly thought, the risky behaviors of adolescents stem from their comfort with the ambiguous. (Credit: iStockphoto/Sawayasu Tsuji)

Their findings show adolescents appear to differ from their older peers in the taste for the uncertain. When faced with situations that have highly uncertain outcomes, most age groups react with distaste; adolescents, by contrast, often find these uncertain situations quite tolerable. Rather than having a taste for risk, as is commonly thought, the risky behaviors of adolescents stem from their comfort with the ambiguous.

These findings, which are reported in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, point to basic differences between adolescents and adults and offer new insights into how to communicate about risk to teenagers and pre-teens.

"Our findings show that teenagers enter unsafe situations not because they are drawn to dangerous or risky situations, but, rather, because they aren't informed enough about the odds of the consequences of their actions," explained Agnieszka Tymula, a post-doctoral researcher... ( more at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121001151024.htm )