Abstract:
The folk theory of the “undeserving poor” maintains that poverty is the result of bad behavior. Might poverty instead cause behavior that appears impatient or impulsive? This paper reports a randomized lab experiment and a partially randomized field experiment, both in India, and analysis of the American Time Use Survey. In all three studies, poverty is associated with lower performance and control. There is no evidence of a specific role for willpower or a generic effect of scarcity. Poverty, by making economic decision-making more difficult for the poor, appears to have depleted cognitive control.
- Read the full paper by Dean Spears of Princeton - here
The folk theory of the “undeserving poor” maintains that poverty is the result of bad behavior. Might poverty instead cause behavior that appears impatient or impulsive? This paper reports a randomized lab experiment and a partially randomized field experiment, both in India, and analysis of the American Time Use Survey. In all three studies, poverty is associated with lower performance and control. There is no evidence of a specific role for willpower or a generic effect of scarcity. Poverty, by making economic decision-making more difficult for the poor, appears to have depleted cognitive control.
- Read the full paper by Dean Spears of Princeton - here
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