Researchers examine emotional role in financial fraud

Researchers at the Stanford Center on Longevity have found in a new report that the ways in which elderly people process high-arousal emotions, such as anger and excitement, is in part responsible for their heightened susceptibility to fraud.

“There’s evidence that [the elderly] are targeted, but to me that’s sort of like [wondering] why criminals rob banks,” said Laura Carstensen, professor of psychology and founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. “That’s where the money is.”