Science· 2014Q1
On the psychology of poverty
- 1,552citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2014year
Short summary
Poverty induces stress and negative emotions, leading to short-sighted, risk-averse decisions that hinder escape from poverty, creating a perpetuating feedback loop.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Poverty is hypothesized to have psychological consequences that perpetuate it.
- Poverty causes stress and negative affective states.
- These states may lead to short-sighted and risk-averse decision-making.
- This mechanism may involve limited attention and favoring habitual behaviors.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Poverty remains one of the most pressing problems facing the world; the mechanisms through which poverty arises and perpetuates itself, however, are not well understood. Here, we examine the evidence for the hypothesis that poverty may have particular psychological consequences that can lead to economic behaviors that make it difficult to escape poverty. The evidence indicates that poverty causes stress and negative affective states which in turn may lead to short-sighted and risk-averse decision-making, possibly by limiting attention and favoring habitual behaviors at the expense of goal-directed ones. Together, these relationships may constitute a feedback loop that contributes to the perpetuation of poverty. We conclude by pointing toward specific gaps in our knowledge and outlining poverty alleviation programs that this mechanism suggests.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Science, 2014 · DOI ↗
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Field: Social Psychology
Social PsychologyPsychology