Because it’s well established that teenage brains aren’t yet sufficiently developed

1. Prefrontal Cortex Immaturity
• The prefrontal cortex—responsible for reasoning, impulse control, planning, and evaluating consequences—continues developing well into the mid-20s.
• Research (e.g., from the National Institute of Mental Health and neuroscientists like Laurence Steinberg) shows that while 16-year-olds can reason logically in calm settings, they struggle more than adults in high-stakes, emotionally charged situations—like making weighty political decisions.
• Voting often involves evaluating complex issues, weighing long-term outcomes, and resisting emotional or social influence—all tasks dependent on a fully developed prefrontal cortex.

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2. Heightened Sensitivity to Peer Influence
• Adolescents are especially susceptible to peer influence due to increased activity in the brain’s reward centres (like the ventral striatum) during the teenage years.
• Studies show that this can lead to more impulsive decisions when peers are involved or watching. In the context of voting, this could make 16-year-olds more likely to adopt opinions from social circles without fully independent evaluation.

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3. Weaker Long-Term Decision-Making
• Brain science shows that adolescents have a still-developing capacity for future orientation—the ability to consider long-term consequences of actions.
• Political participation requires thinking about policies that will affect society years or decades down the line. Sixteen-year-olds, on average, may not yet have the neural maturity to prioritise long-term societal consequences over short-term impressions.

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4. Reduced Cognitive-Emotional Integration
• Voting is not just logical—it involves integrating emotional, social, and moral information. Adolescents’ brains are still learning to balance emotional responses (from areas like the amygdala) with rational thought (from the prefrontal cortex).
• This underdevelopment can mean greater emotional reactivity, which might compromise objective decision-making in political contexts.

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5. Legal Inconsistency Based on Development
• Many laws (e.g., driving, drinking, renting, joining the military without consent) are based on the idea that people under 18 are not yet fully developed in judgment and responsibility.
• These laws reflect an implicit acceptance of brain science: that 16- and 17-year-olds, while capable in many ways, are still developing key capacities needed for full adult responsibilities like voting.

Posted By: Old Git on July 17th 2025 at 16:09:12

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