According to new research study, poverty does not do justice to individuals’ cognitive abilities. Poverty strains cognitive abilities; it opens door for bad decision-making. Poverty deprives so much of the mental energy that it leaves people struggling to make ends meet often have little brainpower left for anything else; such poverty leaves them more susceptible to bad decisions that can perpetuate their situation. “What we’re arguing is it’s not about the individual. It’s about the situation.” said Jiaying Zhao, a University of British Columbia professor and one of the authors of the study, which was published Thursday 08/29/2013 in the journal Science. The research was conducted on two groups of subjects. As a result, people wrestling with the mental strain of poverty suffered a drop of as much as 13 points in their IQ. “Poverty is the equivalent of pulling an all-nighter,” said Harvard economist Sandhil Mullainathan, another of the study’s authors. “Picture yourself after an all-nighter. Being poor is like that every day.”
“While the poor may be experiencing a scarcity of money, at some level what they may really be experiencing is a scarcity of bandwidth, of cognitive capacity,” he said. “It’s the situation that’s creating the stress.”
“You are captured by these monetary issues — how to pay rent, how to pay bills,” Zhao said. “As a result, you’re less attentive to other problems. You neglect other things in life that deserve your attention.”
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