When a teenager makes the ‘stupid choice’, their brain is working exactly as designed Published: July 21, 2026 10.39am BST

https://theconversation.com/when-a-teenager-makes-the-stupid-choice-their-brain-is-working-exactly-as-designed-287503?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=5aed9ee873-nature-briefing-daily-20260721&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-50432164 Teens’ bad decisions are not all irrational Blaming teenagers’ undeveloped brains when they don’t choose the ‘sensible’ path — by retaliating against an insult in a school corridor, for example — does them a disservice, argues evolutionary criminologist Evelyn Svingen. “Teenagers do weigh up what they are doing. The costs that weigh most heavily on them are social, and adults consistently underestimate how heavy they are,” she writes. “The teenager who hits back in the corridor is running on an ancient programme.” She offers advice on how schools and parents can “create an environment where the rewarding thing to do and the sensible thing to do point in the same direction”.