Discussants:
Baruch Fischhoff, Ph.D., Howard Heinz University Professor, Department of Social & Decision Sciences and
Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, and
Wandi Bruine de Bruin, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Social & Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University

Adolescents face many risks through behaviors that they engage in. They have been told repeatedly not to do risky things: just say no, don't drink and drive, AIDS will kill you, marijuana will ruin your life. And yet, teenagers continue to engage in these behaviors. We will describe a line of research that uses a non-judgmental approach to developing interventions, providing the comprehensive information and context-specific skills that teens need to improve their decisions. We will illustrate this approach with an intervention aimed to improve decisions about sex, which led to reduced acquisition of sexually transmitted diseases compared to controls. Completed, ongoing and proposed future research will be discussed.