The Shackles of Fear: A Moderated Mediation Model of How Fear of Aging May Increase Older Adults’ Vulnerability to Fraud

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Older adults are disproportionately vulnerable to frauds of many kinds, and fear of aging has been conjectured to be a primary factor in older adults’ vulnerability to fraud; however, no study has examined how and when fear of aging is associated with older adults’ vulnerability to fraud.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a sample of 251 Chinese older adults (M = 68.1, SD = 6.43) completed measures regarding fear of aging, intolerance of uncertainty, self-control, and vulnerability to fraud.

Results: The results revealed that intolerance of uncertainty partially mediated the association between fear of aging and vulnerability to fraud. This indirect effect of fear of aging on vulnerability to fraud was only significant for older adults with lower levels of self-control.

Conclusions: The association between fear of aging and older adults’ vulnerability to fraud through intolerance of uncertainty varies as a function of self-control.

Clinical implications: Clinicians may focus on reducing the fear of aging, decreasing intolerance of uncertainty, and enhancing self-control as promising pathways to develop effective interventions and outreach strategies aimed at protecting older adults from fraud.

KEYWORDS:

• Financial fraud
• victim
• threat of loss
• uncertainty
• self-control

Clinical implications

• Clinicians may find it beneficial to reduce older adult’s fear of aging and intolerance of uncertainty as a potential avenue to reducing the possibility of falling victim to fraud.

• Self-control appears to be a protective factor of older adults’ vulnerability to fraud and may be a useful target of clinical intervention.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China under Grant [16BSH101].