Why teenagers take risks

Teenagers take risks because they are not effective at predicting the consequences of their actions – or they act on the spur of the moment because they don’t plan ahead. Right? No, not really.

New research by Beatriz Luna, professor of psychiatry and paediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh in America says that the risky behaviour of teenagers is due to large doses of dopamine coursing through their brains.

Teenagers take risks because of temporary brain circuits that reward them with large doses of dopamine, a hormone that makes people happy. Dopamine is a neurtransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure sections. It enables people to see a reward and initiatie action to receive it. It also regulates emotional responses. Psychologists maintain that low dopamine activity in the brain may make people prone to addictions. And the presence of a specific kind of dopamine receptor is associated with sensation-seeking people, more commonly known as risk-takers.

The brains of teenagers are therefore attuned to taking risks as part of growing up – to test the boundaries and to receive levels of happy hormones. These risks could include fighting, undertaking extreme sports, or experimenting with drugs and alcohol.

Luna says teenagers take risks because, as they gain independence, they gain control plus an extra reward, such as instant gratification, when they take risks. So teenagers take risks due to the dopamine rewards after risk-taking behaviour, which leads to further risky behaviour.

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