Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function

The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this hypothesis. First, we experimentally induced thoughts about finances and found that this reduces cognitive performa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2013-08, Vol.341 (6149), p.976-980
Main Authors: Mani, Anandi, Mullainathan, Sendhil, Shafir, Eldar, Zhao, Jiaying
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Agricultural Occupations
Agriculture
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Cognition. Intelligence
Cognitive psychology
Dravidian Languages
Farmers
Female
Financial Management
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Horizontal bar
Humans
Intellectual and cognitive abilities
Low income groups
Male
Matrices
Nutrition
Postharvest handling
Poverty
Poverty - psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Public Policy
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Social psychology
Sugar cane
Taxes
Working papers
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Summary:The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this hypothesis. First, we experimentally induced thoughts about finances and found that this reduces cognitive performance among poor but not in well-off participants. Second, we examined the cognitive function of farmers over the planting cycle. We found that the same farmer shows diminished cognitive performance before harvest, when poor, as compared with after harvest, when rich. This cannot be explained by differences in time available, nutrition, or work effort. Nor can it be explained with stress: Although farmers do show more stress before harvest, that does not account for diminished cognitive performance. Instead, it appears that poverty itself reduces cognitive capacity. We suggest that this is because poverty-related concerns consume mental resources, leaving less for other tasks. These data provide a previously unexamined perspective and help explain a spectrum of behaviors among the poor. We discuss some implications for poverty policy.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1238041