Two theories are presented, one that the brain continues to develop into the late 20s and, because incomplete, makes bad choices when adolescent. The other is that the so-called "pleasure center" or nucleus accumbens is overdeveloped in teens. Taking risks is just too much fun for teens, in this view.
We don't lump this article into our Weird Science series because author Elizabeth Kolbert, mother of three adolescent sons, takes a less-than-doomsday approach to the story. See her conclusion:
Adolescence evolved over a vast expanse of time when survival at any age was a crapshoot. If the hazards are new, so, too, is the safety. Which is why I will keep telling my kids scary stories and why they will continue to ignore them.
