SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @05:13AM (1 child)
Do you honestly think that the average person is good at financial planning?
Whatever your political ideology, if you reach the point of scoffing at the notion of spending one's money wisely, then you're being an idiot. It's true that people aren't poor because of poor financial planning alone, but that is definitely one factor that in the equation.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 06 2018, @03:33PM
It's a trivial factor.
Rent is basically uncontrollable(unless you can get a mortgage which depends on not being poor), and income can be very uncontrollable. The things you can control by budgetting are dwarfed by those two factors. Lots of people spending over half their household income on having a place to live with a family, and no meaningful opportunities for career advancement.