Poverty can sap people's ability to think clearly

[NJCher]

Source: New Scientist Magazine. Link below.

10:14 30 August 2013 by Bob Holmes

It's the cruel cycle of poverty. The many challenges that come with being poor can sap people's ability to think clearly, according to a new study. The findings suggest that governments should think twice before tying up social-assistance programmes in confusing red tape.

Sociologists have long known that poor people are less likely to take medications, keep appointments, or be attentive parents. "Poor people make poorer decisions. They do. The question is why," says Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But does bad decision-making help cause poverty, or does poverty interfere with decision-making?

To explore this question, psychologist Eldar Shafir at Princeton University and his colleagues took advantage of a natural experiment. Small-scale sugar-cane farmers in Tamil Nadu in southern India receive most of their year's income all at once, shortly after the annual harvest. As a result, the same farmer can be poor before harvest and relatively rich after. And indeed, Shafir's team found that farmers had more loans, pawned more belongings, and reported more difficulty paying bills before the harvest than after.

snip

IQ drop

The farmers scored significantly lower on the tests before the harvest, when money was tight, suggesting that their worries made it harder to think clearly. In fact, worrying about money impaired the farmers' thinking almost as much as going without sleep for a full night, and was the equivalent of a 13-point drop in IQ.

snip

More at:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24128-poverty-can-sap-peoples-ability-to-think-clearly.html
Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1238041


Cher

[SoCalDem]

1. Not a bit surprised.

When brainpower is being used for worrying about money, sleep is lost, and rest is unattainable.

When parents have to decide between school shoes & food for the family, it's easy to see depression creeping into the situation too.

If parents have to "wish away" their kids' sniffles, instead of taking them to a doctor, it takes a toll too.

Being able to pay the basic bills, does a LOT for self-esteem and well-bring... of mind and body

[FirstLight]

2. welcome to my world

I just went thru a three week period of unexplainable worry and stress over life bills etc...waking up every morning pre dawn and unable to get back to sleep because of the stupid worry...and I was useless by the second week. Couldn't think straight, couldn't do housework, it was like a spiral into despair and confusion.

Once the kids went back to school and there was some 'normal' of timetables in life, it subsided...but the daily stress of never knowing if we have enough to get by is definitely hazardous to one's health...

[progressoid]

3. ...

I know the feeling.

It really takes a lot out of you emotionally, mentally and physically.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. .

[BOG PERSON]

5. is this the companion piece

to that scholarly report from a few days back, about how being rich makes you a douchebag?

[ladyVet]

6. All they had to do is talk to poor people.

Any one of us could tell them how it feels to be constantly under the stress of having no money to pay bills, buy enough groceries, go to the doctor when you need to, buy clothes when stuff wears out, and so on.

It's very depressing, and the worry saps your health, your desire, your ambition.

Add to that the people who have no idea how to manage money, cook nutritious meals, mend and sew, and you can understand some of the choices people make.

Of course, many people who know those things, and have money, make the same choices, but they aren't poor, so it's not their fault.

[Gormy Cuss]

10. It should be no surprise that mental exhaustion is a product of such stress.

What's interesting here is that someone was able to measure that in such a narrow time frame. I hope that others design studies to measure it. Ultimately such science could be used to inform better poverty reduction policies. After the Great Society we were moving away from a shaming/blaming mentality towards low income people but in the last few decades we've moved back towards describing the poor in terms of 'personal responsibility' and moral failure. It's much easier to justify denying benefits that way.

[ananda]

7. So how does that explain rich people ..

.. who are far worse at thinking well and humanly?

[xchrom]

8. Du rec. Nt

[Starry Messenger]

9. K&R

[Jasana]

11. Been down here just about $200.00...

above the poverty line for awhile due to disability. Went without a phone for a long time. Now I have one of those controversial Obama phones. Haven't had a TV for years so no cable. You'd have to pry my computer out of my cold, dead hands so I've always had an Internet hookup no matter what goes wrong. No working stove or microwave, just a hotplate but, at the very least, I managed to get my grandma's home mortgage re-financed to a decent monthly payment. It took two years.

So yeah, I have an idea about stress. Try adding on mind boggling drugs to the stress and see where that gets you. During the first year of my disability I couldn't fill out a form properly. I tried to pay attention to it but usually my grandmother just had to fill it in for me and then I would sign it, having little idea what I was signing.