Earlier frameworks have indicated that older adults tend to experience decline in their deliberative decisional capacity,
while their affective abilities tend to remain intact (Peters, Hess, Västfjäll, & Auman, 2007). The present study applied
this framework to the study of risky decision-making across the lifespan. Two versions of the Columbia Card Task
(CCT) were used to trigger either affective decision-making (i.e., the “warm” CCT) or deliberative decision-making
(i.e., the “cold” CCT) in a sample of 158 individuals across the lifespan. Overall there were no age differences in risk
seeking. However, there was a significant interaction between age and condition, such that older adults were relatively
more risk seeking in the cold condition only. In terms of everyday decision-making, context matters and risk propensity
may shift within older adults depending upon the context.