Why Teens Do Stupid Things

Given that, as a future RE teacher, I'm likely to have to teach stuff to do with PSHE, this kind of info is really valuable.

are more likely to ponder the risks, take longer (about 170 milliseconds more) weighing the pros and cons of engaging in high-risk behavior than adults -- and actually overestimate the risks. It's just that they often decide the benefits -- the immediate gratification or peer acceptance -- outweigh the risks

In fact it starts to make sense of different strategies to approach such education.

The findings on teenagers imply that interventions that use risk data regarding smoking or unprotected sex, for example, may actually backfire if young people overestimate their risks anyway. Instead, interventions should help young people develop "gist-based" thinking in which dangerous risks are categorically avoided rather than weighed in a rational, deliberative way

This is because of recognising that the more risk-averse behaviours develop from a different style of thinking:

more experienced decision-makers tend to rely more on fuzzy reasoning, processing situations and problems as gists [the essence of their actions] rather than weighing multiple factors

I have a feeling that this may chime in with stuff about the development of moral thinking involving a progression from 'just don't' approaches to more contextual and reasoned versions. Something to keep an eye on, I think.
So add 'gist-based thinking' to the thinking skills curriculum...
ScienceDaily: Why Teens Do Stupid Things: Filed in: teens, decision-making, peers, brain, risks, gist-based, gist-based