Listen to your teenage kids' logic with patience as they may actually be more analytical in their economic choices. Researchers from Duke University have found that adolescents ages 10 to 16 can be more rational as compared to many slightly older young adults.

Scott Huettel, professor of psychology and neuroscience said, "The new results point to the idea that we should not think of adolescents as being irrational. What is different about them is they do not use simple rules as effectively".

During the study, the researchers gave participants three scenarios (A, B, and C), and asked them to pick the best one. In each scenario, there were a set of outcomes that could lead to winning or losing different sums of money. They found that young adults, who were 22 years old on average, used simple rules.

After the completion of the trials, they counted the number of wins and losses in each scenario and picked the one, having most wins and ignored the dollar amount of each potential gain or loss. But, adolescents accounted for the magnitude of the potential win or loss and picked scenarios to minimize loss.

Huettel pointed out that he was surprised to see how consistent the effects were. He said that wherever they looked, adolescents were the ones, who seemed more economically rational,

They found that adolescents consistently viewed most of the possible outcomes of their choices in the experiment. Contrary to this, young adults noticed everything initially, but as the experiment progressed they began ignoring information, not useful to them. They also spent less time as compared to adolescents in viewing each outcome.