This research aimed to clarify whether middle adolescents’ risk-taking is driven by reduced ambiguity aversion. In Study 1, we explored the development of ambiguity aversion using an adaptation of the classic Ellsberg paradox with early adolescents (10–11 years old), middle adolescents (14–16 years old), and young adults (20–25 years old). Study 2 examined the development of ambiguity aversion depending on the ambiguity level in middle adolescence compared with adults. These two studies revealed that only early adolescents did not demonstrate ambiguity aversion. In contrast, middle adolescents and adults showed strong ambiguity aversion irrespective of ambiguity level. These findings support the idea that the period of young adolescence could be the start of ambiguity aversion development, although this tendency to avoid ambiguous options is already developed in middle adolescence. This finding might have important public health implications and suggests that prevention campaigns should consider early adolescence to be a particularly vulnerable age group for risky behaviors.

本研究旨在阐明中年青少年的冒险行为是否是由减少的歧义厌恶驱动的。在研究 1 中，我们利用经典埃尔斯伯格悖论对早期青少年（10-11 岁）、中年青少年（14-16 岁）和年轻人（20-25 岁）的改编探索了歧义厌恶的发展。 . 研究 2 研究了与成人相比，青春期中期的歧义厌恶程度取决于歧义厌恶的发展。这两项研究表明，只有早期的青少年没有表现出模棱两可的厌恶。相比之下，无论歧义水平如何，中年青少年和成年人都表现出强烈的歧义厌恶。这些发现支持了这样一种观点，即青春期可能是歧义厌恶发展的开始，尽管这种避免模棱两可的选择的倾向已经在青春期中期发展起来。这一发现可能具有重要的公共卫生意义，并表明预防运动应将青春期早期视为危险行为特别脆弱的年龄组。