Younger Children Make Better And More Informed Decisions Than Older Children, Study Says

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – They say kids say the darndest things. It turns out, younger children make more informed decisions than older kids.

According to a new study from the University of Waterloo, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, younger kids make better and more informed choices than their older peers.

The research found that as children age they begin ignoring pieces of information that are critical to making judgments.

"Children aren't taking all the information we are giving them at face value," Samatha Gualtieri said. "They may be thinking about it in their own way and using the data in the way they think makes the most sense, which is important for parents and teachers to understand."

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Kids begin taking shortcuts when they're 4 years old, per the research, and are taking shortcuts as high as adults by the time they're 6.

Gualtieri and Stephanie Denison authored the study by conducting two experiments assessing 288 children.

They looked at how kids made decisions based on three different types of information: social, numerical or both.

The results showed that the older children overused social information – 95% of 6 year olds and 70% of 5 year olds – while just 45% of 4 year olds depended on social info in their decision-making process.

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The study says younger children are more likely to weigh both social and numerical information when making decisions.