Turns out, adolescents really care what their friends think—quite a lot, in fact—and this distorts all kinds of choices they make. Teenagers take more risks than any other age group. They may even be neurologically inclined toward risk, especially where peer approval is on the line.13 It isn’t just that teenagers do dumb things. It’s that, when faced with their peers, they almost can’t help themselves. The prefrontal cortex, believed to hold the seat of self-regulation, typically does not complete development until age twenty-five.
