One fascinating study in which adolescents were asked to consider whether such absurd and dangerous acts were a good idea found that it took teens a full sixth of a second longer to say no than it did adults. That seems like a tiny amount of time, but it is long in terms of much that goes on in the brain. And in that sixth of a second lies a world of experience, one that no one has been able to induce faster than it takes teens to actually grow up—if they survive their inevitable bad choices.
