Teenage brain risk taking reflects reward systems, researcher says

A teenager who lashes out after an insult may be responding to social rewards and threats in a predictable way, according to evolutionary criminology researcher Evelyn Svingen. Writing in The Conversation, Svingen says teenage brain risk taking is linked to reward circuits that become especially responsive during adolescence, rather than to a simple inability to think about consequences.

Svingen argues that the point matters for parents, teachers and justice systems because young people are especially shaped by the social settings around them. Fair, calm responses to conflict can reduce the pressure teenagers feel to defend status through retaliation, she says.

Why do teenagers take risks?

According to Svingen, adolescence is a period when young people begin to move away from family dependence and establish their place among peers. A brain that is strongly tuned to approval, exclusion and status can help with that transition, even when it also makes some choices look reckless to adults.

Svingen cites research showing that the brain’s reward system, including the ventral striatum, becomes more reactive during the teenage years and reaches a high point in mid-adolescence. The ventral striatum is part of the brain circuitry involved in reward and motivation.

At the same time, Svingen notes, the prefrontal cortex, which helps a person hold back an impulse, keeps developing into the third decade of life. That timing can leave teenagers feeling immediate social rewards or threats strongly while still building the control systems that help adults pause before acting.

What role do peers play?

Peer presence can change adolescent behavior, Svingen says. Research she cites found that friends can increase risk-taking and activate reward circuitry in ways that differ from when teenagers are alone.

Svingen also points to studies indicating that sensitivity to peer judgment and exclusion is especially high in adolescence. In that setting, walking away from a confrontation may carry a social cost that adults underestimate, even if adults see restraint as the sensible choice.

Her argument also draws on broader research into fairness and punishment. Svingen says humans are inclined to reward cooperation and punish rule-breaking, and she cites studies finding that infants as young as 8 months prefer people who behave well toward others, while willingness to punish rule-breakers grows with age.

Retribution can also feel rewarding, according to research cited by Svingen. In her view, that helps explain why a teenager may strike back after an insult: the response can reflect an old cooperative mechanism for confronting unfairness, intensified by the social demands of adolescence.

What can parents and schools do?

Svingen says adolescent sensitivity to surroundings means high-risk settings and delinquent peers can strongly influence whether young people break rules. She also says the same sensitivity makes adolescence a period when supportive environments can have a strong positive effect.

For schools, Svingen points to mediated conflict resolution as an alternative to relying only on punishment. A trained staff member can help students in conflict be heard and work toward an outcome both see as fair, she says.

At home, she says parents can calmly step into sibling disputes rather than leaving children to settle them in ways that may reward the stronger child. Adults can also give teenagers ways to cool down without public embarrassment, such as offering time and choice before returning to a conflict.

• Svingen says fair systems can lower the immediate pull of retaliation.
• She says social recognition can make helpful behavior more rewarding.
• She says a face-saving exit can let a teenager step back from conflict without feeling humiliated.

The central message, according to Svingen, is that adolescent behavior reflects a brain adapting to a demanding social stage. The practical response, she says, is to build environments where the socially rewarding choice is also the safer one.

This story draws on original reporting from Phys.org.