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Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function

posted by martyb on Tuesday November 06 2018, @03:01AM   
from the poverty-sucks dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

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

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Original Submission

• Re:And you would expect them to do... what? Re:And you would expect them to do... what? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @05:55AM (4 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @05:55AM (#758403)

  The Democrats have a well documented history of doing more for the poor, and less to the poor

  Oh yeah, just take a look at those Democrat controlled paradises like Detroit and Baltimore. The Democrats really do know how to do things """for""" the poor.

  Parent

• Re:And you would expect them to do... what? Re:And you would expect them to do... what? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @06:12AM (3 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @06:12AM (#758406)

  What specific policy positions do you disagree with?

  Parent

  • Re:And you would expect them to do... what? Re:And you would expect them to do... what? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @06:38AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @06:38AM (#758414)

    The result.

    Parent

    • Re:And you would expect them to do... what? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @08:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 06 2018, @08:17AM (#758422)

      What policies do you support that could have been implemented to avoid the situations in Detroit and Baltimore?

      Parent

    • Re:And you would expect them to do... what? (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday November 06 2018, @08:53AM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday November 06 2018, @08:53AM (#758424) Journal

      You know the result? You did visit an alternative reality where different policies were tried, and got better results?

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

      Parent