Article

Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function

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Abstract

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.

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... The wealth gap between the rich and the poor is increasing, resulting in social contradictions and the perpetuation of the stereotype of poverty. Previous studies have indicated that poverty negatively affects cognitive abilities, including working memory (Fernald et al., 2011;Evans & Schamberg, 2009), executive functioning (Ursache et al., 2015;Barr, 2012), and attention (Forssman et al., 2017;Mani et al., 2013). These negative effects of poverty on cognitive performance have significant implications in daily life. ...
... The objective of this study was to examine the differences in neural activity and behavioral performance among individuals from lower-income and higher-income families using the electroencephalogram (EEG) method. Mani et al. (2013) found that scarcity captures attention, modifies cognitive processes, and infiltrate unconscious thinking. The attention captured by scarcity can impact the speed of stimulus reception and perception, subsequently influencing thinking, decision-making, and behavior (Mani et al., 2013). ...
... Mani et al. (2013) found that scarcity captures attention, modifies cognitive processes, and infiltrate unconscious thinking. The attention captured by scarcity can impact the speed of stimulus reception and perception, subsequently influencing thinking, decision-making, and behavior (Mani et al., 2013). Therefore, poverty does have an influence on attention. ...
Article
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Previous studies have demonstrated that poverty negatively affects cognitive performance and is associated with deficits in cortical areas or grey volumes. This study aimed to investigate the impact of poverty stereotype threat (PST) on attention bias. We hypothesized that PST would have different effects on attention bias in individuals with varying household incomes, and that these effects would be influenced by the characteristics of the stimuli being processed (such as expression and material types), which are highly relevant to attention bias and the threatened condition. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a dot-probe task with event-related potential (ERP) measures. Participants were instructed to identify the position of a dot after poverty- or affluence-related paired stimuli disappeared. The study found that lower household income participants allocated more attentional resources to the affluence-related stimuli under PST, while higher household income participants allocated more attentional resources to the poverty-related stimuli. These findings demonstrate the contrasting effects of PST, which depend on the characteristics of the stimuli and the individuals themselves. Specifically, the study found a positive effect of PST on attention bias in lower-income individuals and a negative effect on attention bias in higher-income individuals.
... As modern life accelerates, consumers facing high time poverty struggle to allocate sufficient time for important activities, leading to difficult trade-offs [17]. The literature indicates that individuals experiencing time poverty may face cognitive behavior blocks and accumulate negative emotions, leading to short-term decision making and unconscious disregard of existing information, thereby impacting intertemporal decisions [18,19]. When gameplay is mandatory or occurs under time poverty, gamified interactions may not necessarily facilitate positive brand connection outcomes [20]. ...
... Time poverty may have both positive and detrimental effects on performance, depending on the degree of time poverty and subjective appraisals of the relationship between perceived demands and available resources. This can lead to poor decisions that worsen one's state of deprivation [18]. ...
... Initial evidence found that when consumers experienced high time poverty to complete the game, their cognitive elaboration about the brand was diminished [20]. High time poverty causes attention occupation of individuals and leads them unable to allocate more attention resources to game marketing activities, reducing the cognitive function of brand value [18]. Individuals with high time poverty have less disposable time and are difficult to devote time and energy to their favorite activities, so they are prone to reduce irrelevant leisure activities [93]. ...
Article
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Gamification has been extensively employed in marketing practices to meet the diverse needs of consumers. Previous research suggests that gamification marketing plays a pivotal role in influencing customer purchase intention. However, the precise mechanism through which gamification marketing impacts purchase intention requires further investigation. Drawing on the self-determination theory (SDT), this study explores the relationship between gamification marketing and purchase intention, with customers’ perceived brand coolness as a mediating variable and time poverty as a moderating variable. Using data collected from 184 participants in the experiment, our research demonstrates that, in comparison to non-gamification marketing, gamification marketing significantly influences purchase intention. Furthermore, perceived brand coolness emerges as a mediating factor in this relationship, providing new insights into the gamification mechanism. Customers who are in low time poverty exert more perceived brand coolness and purchase intentions compared with high time poverty in the context of gamification marketing. This study expands the research of gamification by introducing perceived brand coolness to the relationship between gamification marketing and purchase intention. It also contributes to the study of time poverty under the context of gamification marketing.
... The family load generates thoughts that run continuously in people's (mostly women's) minds and are difficult to isolate in other areas of their lives, such as at work or while sleeping (Dean et al., 2022). Following the literature on scarcity (Mani et al., 2013;Haushofer and Fehr, 2014;Schilbach et al., 2016;Kaur et al., 2024), we hypothesize that by generating these constant and boundaryless thoughts related to household management and to children's well-being, the family load can reduce their productivity and impair their decision-making processes. ...
... Following the literature on poverty and cognition, to assess the impact of the family load on productivity and self-selection we adopt the technique of "priming", triggering in the mind of participants thoughts related to the family load (Mani et al., 2013;Shah et al., 2015;Dalton et al., 2020). Priming interventions do not aim at generating new thoughts, but rather at bringing up to the mind already existing thoughts by making them more salient (Cohn and Maréchal, 2016). ...
... In the literature on scarcity, various tasks have been used to measure cognitive load, sometimes in combination (Shah et al., 2012). For instance, in Mani et al. (2013), both Raven's Matrices and the spatial incompatibility task were used to assess cognitive load. In our design, we require a single challenging task that can be easily compared to the manual task, and that best simulates the challenges individuals may encounter in the labor Note: Clustered standard errors at the ward level in parentheses.*, ...
... -Ralph Waldo Emerson Resource scarcity does not only concern the underprivileged population but is relevant for anyone with insufficient resources to meet their needs and desires Roux et al., 2015). Emerging research has indicated that although resource scarcity could stem from an actual shortage of resources (e.g., poverty; Mani et al., 2013), it could also be manifested as subjective perceptions (hereafter referred to as scarcity perceptions; de Bruijn & Antonides, 2022;Goldsmith et al., 2018). Extant literature has focused mainly on how scarcity perceptions result from one's actual possession of, consideration of, or changes in resources (Cannon et al., 2019;Hamilton et al., 2018;Kristofferson et al., 2017;Tully & Sharma, 2022). ...
... One may perceive scarcity because of actual resource constraints, such as poverty (Mani et al., 2013), low socioeconomic status (Griskevicius et al., 2013), a shortage of funds (Paley et al., 2019;Tully et al., 2015), and observed limitations in material life (Levontin et al., 2014;Pitesa & Thau, 2018;Wang et al., 2020). However, consumers perceive scarcity in any situation as long as their time, money, food, or other quantifiable and consumable resources are considered inadequate to satisfy their needs and desires. ...
... Instead of emphasizing the negative downstream effects of SCC, as previously concluded, we focus on the multifaceted subjective perception that SCC creates, specifically scarcity perceptions. Scarcity perceptions have dual impacts: They can trigger negative effects such as impaired cognitive function (Mani et al., 2013), decreased prosociality (Roux et al., 2015), and increased aggression (Kristofferson et al., 2017). Conversely, they can also lead to positive outcomes such as green consumption (Goldsmith et al., 2020), innovative thinking (Mehta & Zhu, 2016), and increased patience (Harati & Talhelm, 2023). ...
Article
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We explore the relationship between self-concept clarity (SCC), scarcity perceptions, and the associated behavioral consequences. While scarcity perceptions are often linked to experiences and considerations of resource constraints, our research suggests that low SCC can induce such perceptions and decrease prosocial behavior. With six studies, we demonstrated that low SCC triggers scarcity perceptions (Studies 1A to 4B), which is mediated by increased social comparison orientation (Studies 2 to 4B). Furthermore, we found that the scarcity perceptions increased by low SCC further predict individuals’ low inclination to engage in prosocial behaviors (Studies 3 to 4B). By establishing a link between SCC and scarcity perceptions, our research departs from the traditional focus on resource constraints, broadens the factors that induce scarcity perceptions, and extends our understanding of the societal implications of low SCC.
... While some studies suggest that early adversity increases caution and reduces participation in risky financial markets, others indicate that it can foster risk-taking behaviors. For example, individuals who survived extreme famines may develop a willingness to engage in higher-risk tasks, driven by cognitive resource limitations or a diminished fear of potential losses (Kish-Gephart and Campbell 2015; Mani et al. 2013). This duality highlights the nuanced role of early-life experiences in shaping financial strategies, including risk preferences, portfolio diversification, and market participation. ...
... Nevertheless, experiencing extreme events may lead individuals to embrace risky tasks later in life. Mani et al. (2013) indicate that adverse experiences (e.g., poverty) can also lead to cognitive resource limitations, conservative thinking patterns, and weakened social capital, which may result in shorter-term and riskier decision-making. Morandi Stagni, Fosfuri, and Santaló (2021) find that wild animals with poor early nutrition show greater risk-taking behaviors when seeking food, water, and shelter as adults. ...
Article
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Objective: Based on imprinting theory, this study investigates the impact of famine experience on household portfolio diversification, focusing on the three core elements of imprint formation: sensitive period, environmental imprint and lasting impact. Method: Using data from the 2013–2019 China Household Finance Survey, we examine how early-life famine experience affects household investment choices by applying ordinary least squares (OLS) and ordered probit models. Results: We find that household heads who experienced famine during childhood tend to hold more stocks and other risky financial assets, leading to more diverse investment portfolios. Further, the impact of famine experience is greater in urban areas and for households with low levels of education and financial literacy. Mechanism analyses reveal that famine experience leads to risk aversion, which increases the diversity of household investments. However, the effect of famine experience weakens over time as the gap between experience and survey period grows. Conclusion: The study offers new insights into how early-life famine experience shapes household investment behaviours. The findings deepen our understanding of how psychological factors, rooted in early adversities, influence financial portfolio choices, contributing to both upper echelons theory and behavioural finance research.
... Finally, housing stress was found to partially mediate the association between housing quality and inhibitory control, which aligns with previous findings linking elevated stress to reduced inhibitory control [73][74][75]. The results of this study contribute to the literature on stress and EF, extending beyond existing evidence for acute and chronic stressors such as economic and relational stress, by offering new evidence regarding the role of housing stress in this relationship. ...
... This finding corroborates existing work on poverty and cognitive outcomes, especially in children [80]. A quasi-experimental study with adults also found SES differences associated with cognitive functioning [73]. Age was not significantly associated with working memory in our findings. ...
Article
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An increasing body of literature has investigated the implications of housing quality on health, confirming the negative consequences of poor housing quality on physical and mental health. Despite this increased focus on the salutogenic impacts of housing, the relationship between housing quality and cognitive health remains understudied. This study examined how the housing quality in urban informal settlements, where living conditions are often substandard, affects women’s cognitive functioning, with a specific focus on executive function (EF) skills. EF is a decision-making system that enables us to make decisions using working memory and attentional control. This study addressed two key questions: (1) Is housing quality associated with EF skills? (2) Does perceived housing stress experienced by women mediate the housing–EF relationship? A standardized observer-based tool assessed housing quality, psychometric instruments measured EF skills, and a 12-item questionnaire evaluated perceived housing stress. Results indicated that better housing quality is positively associated with higher EF skills, with housing stress acting as a mediating factor in this relationship. These findings have important implications for both health and housing policies. Investments in improving housing conditions can yield cognitive health benefits for women, and addressing stress-inducing housing factors could further enhance cognitive outcomes.
... Poverty could also produce our results through a different mechanism. For instance, a lower education or a lower cognitive capacity due to financial stress [62] could lead individuals with fewer resources to not understand the risk questions as well. However, we did not find any evidence of an association between resources and consistency in risk answers ( §4d). ...
Article
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In situations of poverty, do people take more or less risk? One hypothesis states that poverty makes people avoid risk, because they cannot buffer against losses, while another states that poverty makes people take risks, because they have little to lose. Each hypothesis has some previous empirical support. Here, we test the ‘desperation threshold’ model, which integrates both hypotheses. We assume that people attempt to stay above a critical level of resources, representing their ‘basic needs’. Just above this threshold, people have much to lose and should avoid risk. Below, they have little to lose and should take risks. We conducted preregistered tests of the model using survey data from 472 adults in France and the UK. The predictor variables were subjective and objective measures of current resources. The outcome measure, risk taking, was measured using a series of hypothetical gambles. Risk taking followed a V-shape against subjective resources, first decreasing and then increasing again as resources reduced. This pattern was not observed for the objective resource measure. We also found that risk taking was more variable among people with fewer resources. Our findings synthesize the split literature on poverty and risk taking, with implications for policy and interventions.
... and the reliability of the intuitive responses was = .68. (Raven, 2000): We used Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven, 2000) as another measure of participants' reflection performance (Mellers et al., 2015). Following the procedure in Mani et al. (2013;Study 2), participants were presented with three 3×3 matrices with figures that make up a pattern, with one figure missing. Participants were asked to select the figure that completes the pattern correctly. ...
Article
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Existing research suggests a negative correlation between reflective thinking and religious belief. The dual process model (DPM) posits that reflection diminishes religious belief by limiting intuitive decisions. In contrast, the expressive rationality model (ERM) argues that reflection serves an identity-protective function by bolstering rather than modifying preexisting beliefs. Although the current literature tends to favor the DPM, many studies suffer from unbalanced samples. To avoid this limitation, we recruited comparably large number of participants for both religious believers (n = 580) and non-believers (n = 594) and observed the relationship between reflection and two measures of religious belief: belief in God and disbelief in evolution. Our findings corroborate the negative associations found between higher levels of reflection and both types of belief, independent of religious affiliation. Our results align with the broader literature, supporting the DPM but not the ERM.
... Financial instability and low income are major contributory factors for domestic violence in both developed and developing countries (Slabbert, 2016;Golu, 2014;Parish et al. 2004;Bowman, 2003). Poverty is a phenomenon that describes one's inability to fulfil his needs because of the limited available resources at his disposal (Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir, & Zhao, 2013). ...
Thesis
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The thesis explored the experiences of the abused Muslim women in Ebiraland. It was a detailed analysis of the forms, factors and viable solutions to curbing the menace of the violence in Ebiraland, Nigeria.
... Por último, otro problema común que enfrentan los consumidores es la carga cognitiva y la teoría de la escasez (cognitive scarcity, en inglés), donde las personas que sufren de un alto estrés financiero, asociado a menores ingresos, son más proclives a tomar peores decisiones financieras, lo que lleva, por ejemplo, al sobreendeudamiento (Bruijn & Antonides, 2022). Se ha mostrado como el desempeño cognitivo de una misma persona puede variar si es que la persona cuenta o no con una fuente de ingresos, debido al estrés que esta preocupación genera (Mani et al., 2013). También, se ha estudiado cómo las personas de menores ingresos toman decisiones de crédito más sesgadas al presente en períodos de mayor restricción presupuestaria, lo que se traduce en el aumento del riesgo de no pago y costos anuales de endeudamiento más elevados (Bos et al., 2016). ...
Experiment Findings
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En el presente informe se reportan los resultados de un experimento en línea con 2.963 consumidores, cuyo objetivo fue identificar el mejor formato de recordatorios para estimular a los consumidores al pago a tiempo de su deuda. Para ello se evaluaron cinco mensajes: un recordatorio de control –breve y simple– que sirvió como base de comparación, y cuatro tratamientos que enfatizan diversos aspectos de la facturación de una tarjeta de crédito y que, conforme a la literatura sobre economía del comportamiento, puede motivar comportamientos (sub)óptimos de los consumidores, a saber: el pago mínimo, el monto facturado, los costos por atraso expresados por el interés moratorio y el impacto del no pago en el riesgo crediticio futuro. El experimento evaluó el impacto de los recordatorios sobre un conjunto de variables de resultado, en particular, la disposición del consumidor a pagar su tarjeta de crédito y la comprensión y confianza en el mensaje, entre otras. Los resultados del experimento indican que el mensaje que resalta la información de los costos por atraso tiene un mayor impacto en la disposición de pagar la tarjeta de crédito en comparación al grupo control (16,1pp). Sin embargo, este tratamiento no obtiene buenos resultados en cuanto a la claridad (-6,1pp) y confianza (-5pp) en el mensaje. En contrapunto, los hallazgos globales indican que el mensaje que enfatiza el pago del monto total facturado, junto con motivar la disposición de pago (7,5pp), tiene un mejor resultado en materia de claridad (5pp) y es igualmente confiable que el grupo control.En el presente informe se reportan los resultados de un experimento en línea con 2.963 consumidores, cuyo objetivo fue identificar el mejor formato de recordatorios para estimular a los consumidores al pago a tiempo de su deuda. Para ello se evaluaron cinco mensajes: un recordatorio de control –breve y simple– que sirvió como base de comparación, y cuatro tratamientos que enfatizan diversos aspectos de la facturación de una tarjeta de crédito y que, conforme a la literatura sobre economía del comportamiento, puede motivar comportamientos (sub)óptimos de los consumidores, a saber: el pago mínimo, el monto facturado, los costos por atraso expresados por el interés moratorio y el impacto del no pago en el riesgo crediticio futuro. El experimento evaluó el impacto de los recordatorios sobre un conjunto de variables de resultado, en particular, la disposición del consumidor a pagar su tarjeta de crédito y la comprensión y confianza en el mensaje, entre otras. Los resultados del experimento indican que el mensaje que resalta la información de los costos por atraso tiene un mayor impacto en la disposición de pagar la tarjeta de crédito en comparación al grupo control (16,1pp). Sin embargo, este tratamiento no obtiene buenos resultados en cuanto a la claridad (-6,1pp) y confianza (-5pp) en el mensaje. En contrapunto, los hallazgos globales indican que el mensaje que enfatiza el pago del monto total facturado, junto con motivar la disposición de pago (7,5pp), tiene un mejor resultado en materia de claridad (5pp) y es igualmente confiable que el grupo control.
... Proposition 8: Comparable older consumers are less likely to recognize manipulation as such and are therefore more susceptible to manipulation than younger consumers. Likewise, the factor income, which according to Mani et al. (2013) is negatively correlated with cognitive capacity, could lead to consumers with comparatively lower incomes being more likely to use decision heuristics instead of cognitive reflection when confronted with a manipulation. Again, this may foster a higher susceptibility to manipulation: ...
Article
Purpose Recently, manipulative techniques, such as dark patterns, are widely applied. However, there is a need for clarification regarding these techniques and related phenomena. In particular, there is still no clarity about the terminology and conceptual basis of consumer manipulation. This paper aims to address this shortcoming by introducing a definition and classification of consumer manipulation. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes a conceptual approach, drawing on existing literature and established theories to comprehend the phenomenon of consumer manipulation. Findings The paper proposes that consumer manipulation comprises three dimensions: limited transparency, perceived restriction of autonomy and the feeling of being tricked. This paper presents a classification of different types of consumer manipulation and demonstrates how these types can lead to varying outcomes based on the source of manipulation, changeability, reasons for perception and perception timing. Based on this classification, research propositions informed by established theories and concepts are presented. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this work represents a first attempt to address the concept of consumer manipulation through a clear definition and classification. It is relevant for academics, policymakers and practitioners since it facilitates informed discussions and analyses of this concept. It benefits companies by raising awareness of potentially overlooked consequences of manipulative tactics, while also benefiting consumers by reducing their exposure to manipulation.
... For instance, children from lower socio-economic status households have shown poorer educational outcomes compared to their more prosperous peers, with significant gaps in verbal ability scores observed from early childhood. Such disparities happen due to limitations on family contribution in education and the psychological conditions linked with poverty (Mani et al., 2013). The pandemic highlighted severe problems within the education sector of Pakistan. ...
Article
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The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the existing inequalities in access to education, particularly for deprived children in Pakistan. Children drop-out rate from schools accelerated, learning level of students decreased and more than 10,000 low-cost private-sector schools were permanently closed in Pakistan due to pandemic emergency. These problems questioned the sustainability of schools in Pakistan and put the future of millions of students on stake. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of the digital divide on the educational outcomes and psycho-social challenges for children in the post-COVID-19 period. With the help of mixed-methods approach, the research examines how limited access to digital resources has affected academic performance and created psycho-social challenges for the children. Furthermore, this study identifies specific challenges faced in accessing online education, and explores potential strategies to mitigate these issues. The study focuses on middle school children (grade 6-8) studying in low-cost private sector schools in Lahore, Pakistan. Five low-cost private sector schools from different areas of Lahore have been used to gather the data. It has been observed that underprivileged children confront major challenges while acquiring education. Children and their families lack basic skills to use digital devices, moreover, their inadequate internet access and several socioeconomic problems create hindrances in their educational progress. Similarly, teachers from deprived backgrounds are also fighting the same challenges. Therefore, this study highlights the significance of strategic and sustainable interventions in the field of school education for the progress of children belonging to deprived areas. The study pens the need for providing affordable devices, free digital literacy programs with expansion of internet infrastructure which can bridge the digital divide and improve educational outcomes as well as psychological and socioeconomic conditions of children in Pakistan in the post COVID’19 era.
... Poverty is associated with depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, self-esteem, and substance use problems (Afulani et al., 2020;Fang et al., 2021;Lee & Singh, 2022;Leung et al., 2015;Martinez et al., 2020;Melchior et al., 2009;Nagata et al., 2019;Pourmotabbed et al., 2020;Pryor et al., 2016;Santiago et al., 2011;Wadsworth et al., 2008), so as resources become more constrained, participants likely experience worse affect. Similarly, as resources are depleted throughout the month, financial stress and the cognitive burden of poverty may increase, negatively impacting affect (Mani et al., 2013). Moreover, food insecurity, the very issue SNAP targets, is a form of scarcity especially linked to subjective well-being; Frongillo et al. (2017) found that food insecurity is a greater predictor of subjective well-being than income, shelter and housing, or employment (Frongillo et al., 2017). ...
Article
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As the primary food assistance program and second largest anti-poverty program in the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is critical to the US safety net. SNAP reduces food insecurity and poverty, and there is some evidence that it improves health. However, little is known about the effects of SNAP on more global measures of welfare and quality of life. In this study, I examine the effect of the monthly SNAP benefit cycle on subjective well-being using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) Well-being Module and SNAP benefit issuance schedules from 2012 and 2013. Specifically, I compare the subjective well-being of SNAP-eligible individuals (those at or below the income limit) and near-eligible individuals (those above the income limit but below 250% of the Federal Poverty Level) (N = 4949) on the day SNAP benefits are issued and each subsequent day of the benefit month. Results show that average happiness scores decrease by about 0.013 points (0.30%) every day following benefit issuance for SNAP-eligible individuals, relative to near-eligible individuals. Additionally, the day of benefit issuance has negative implications for well-being, with increases in stress and pain scores on these days, particularly among certain populations. These findings indicate that benefit depletion may negatively impact the well-being of SNAP participants, but increasing the number of benefit issuance days per month may be harmful. This study thus contributes to understanding of SNAP’s effects and can inform design changes to improve the welfare of low-income populations.
... Some recent evidence points out the impact of poverty on individual cognitive function, like attention (Mani et al., 2013;Shah et al., 2018). For instance, factors related to drought episodes, like malnutrition or money concerns, may affect the mental capacity of the student to concentrate on specific activities. ...
... Offering some preliminary evidence to this notion, the two studies explained that experiences of precarity are likely to evoke doubts, suspicion, and distrust, all of which have been previously identified as precursors of CBs. Relatedly, the experience of precarity was shown to have numerous adverse impacts on one's quality of life (e.g., mental health, sleep deprivation, chronic pain or malnutrition) (Dean et al., 2019) and cognitive functions (e.g., memory, executive control, and analytical thinking) thus making individuals more prone to adhere to CBs (de Bruijn & Antonides, 2020;Fiksenbaum et al., 2017;Haushofer & Fehr, 2014;Mani et al., 2013;. It was further shown that people's susceptibility to various epistemically suspect beliefs (including CBs) that offer seemingly logical explanations to complex events serves them as defensive and coping strategies in alleviating the cognitive dissonance and reducing feelings of discomfort, threat and fear 3 (Bukowski et al., 2017;Johnson-Schlee, 2019;Jolley & Paterson, 2020;Kraus et al., 2012;Marchlewska et al., 2017). ...
Preprint
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The paper reports findings of a preregistered longitudinal replication examining the extent to which institutional trust mediates the relationship between individuals’ sense of precarity and their adherence to conspiracy beliefs. Across three waves, 925 participants (50.2% female) between the age of 18 and 85 (M = 49.53; SD = 15.81) reported subjective appraisals of their financial situation (precarity), trust in eight institutions (e.g., Slovak government and president, European Union), and adherence to conspiracy beliefs. The results point to a self-enhancing nature of the relationship between the variables which show to be intrinsically intertwined and, with time, reinforce their aversive effects on one another. Unlike cross-sectional studies replicated here, the current results support the view that the sense of precarity is an outcome of adherence to conspiracy beliefs rather than its cause, while institutional (dis)trust and conspiracy beliefs show a consistently bidirectional pattern jointly contributing to the formation of conspicious (conspiracist + suspicious) mindset. As a consequence, conspiracy theorists may fall into a trap of conspiracy beliefs, suspicions, and pessimistic appraisal of their living (economic and institutional) circumstances. The paper discusses theoretical and practical consequences of the bidirectionality as the findings may substantially contribute to our understanding of conspiracy beliefs and consideration of potential interventions aimed at mitigating their real-life ramifications.
... When making intertemporal decisions, individuals with a high sense of relative deprivation will tend to choose close and small options (Pan et al., 2023). To produce a higher socioeconomic status, they may focus more on improving their current situation (Mani et al., 2013), such as alleviating economic distress, rather than considering having another child. ...
Article
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In the global context, China's shift toward bearing fewer children and a longer life expectancy has brought the willingness to have another child into the spotlight. This study revealed the effect of the expected socioeconomic status on the willingness to have another child and its influencing mechanism among the contemporary Chinese population of childbearing age and further tested the moderating effect of relative deprivation. A binary logistic regression model was constructed using 2982 observations of the reproductive age population, and the relationship between the willingness to have children and expected socioeconomic status was examined. The stepwise regression method and bootstrap method were used to test the mediating effect. The results demonstrate that the expected socioeconomic status was positively related to the reproduction intention of people of childbearing age, the educational burden due to existing children played a partial mediating role between expected socioeconomic status and the reproduction intention of people of childbearing age, and the sense of far deprivation played a negative moderating role between the expected socioeconomic status and the reproduction intention of people of childbearing age. The present study contributes to the existing literature regarding the factors affecting the intention to have another child, which almost always starts with existing conditions, such as family income, and neglects the fact that the expected socioeconomic status of people of childbearing age is also a prospective variable that affects the intention to have another child. These findings imply that the supporting system of fertility policy and the sense of accessibility for people of childbearing age should be improved.
... Como covariables se aplicaron: la escala de individualismo y colectivismo vertical y horizontal de Triandis y Gelfand (1998), validada previamente en América Latina (Díaz et al., 2020); la escala de percepción de la desigualdad en la vida cotidiana validada previamente con jóvenes hispanohablantes, denominada PEIEL por las siglas de "Perception of Inequality in Everday Life" (García-Castro et al., 2019); el nivel de religiosidad según Etchezahar y Simkin (2013) (consta de una sola pregunta); y la preocupación y autosuficiencia con el dinero (Mani et al., 2013) (consta de una sola pregunta). Asimismo, se empleó un conjunto de variables sociodemográficas, tales como: la cantidad de habitantes en el hogar, la escolaridad de las figuras parentales, y la tenencia de bienes o la condición de propiedad de la vivienda. ...
Article
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Objetivo: se analiza la relación entre la aversión a la desigualdad y normas sociales de carácter conformista e inconformista, para explorar su influencia en las decisiones ante la distribución de recursos entre adolescentes costarricenses. Metodología: este estudio cuasiexperimental transversal, realizado con una muestra costarricense (N = 285, M edad = 13.4 años, DT edad = .64, 51.4% mujeres), se enfocó en la influencia de normas sociales conformista e inconformista en la toma de decisiones frente a la desigualdad, en un juego de interdependencia económica (juego del ultimátum -JdU-) en versión de pago por trabajo. Además, se exploró la relación entre estas normas y las orientaciones culturales individualista-colectivista horizontal y vertical, las variables sociodemográficas y la aversión a la desigualdad. Resultados: se encontró que la inducción de normas no tuvo un efecto significativo en las decisiones de los participantes en el JdU, así como una relación negativa entre la cantidad de habitantes del hogar y la aversión a la desigualdad. Conclusiones: estos resultados sugieren que la aversión a la desigualdad y la preferencia por la igualdad son más fuertes que la influencia situacional de normas sociales de carácter conformista e inconformista en la toma de decisiones frente a la desigualdad.
... In contrast, behavioral economics shifts attention to internal constraint mechanisms. This approach emphasizes the impact of internal factors on poverty, including self-efficacy [14,15], lack of aspirations [16,17], self-control [18,19], and cognitive barriers [20]. From a social psychology perspective, individuals trapped in poverty may experience the distress of aspirational deficit. ...
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In the context of sustainable agricultural development and rural revitalization in China, understanding and addressing psychological poverty traps among rural farm households is crucial. The poverty mindset represents a crucial factor affecting rural poverty. This study focuses on two key questions: first, whether and how material poverty influences the poverty mindset; and second, whether this psychological state affects economic behavior, potentially intensifying material poverty. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) spanning 2014–2018, the data collection employed a multi-stage stratified sampling approach. Multiple methods, including questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews, were utilized to gather information. Through matching and merging processes based on personal questionnaire IDs, a total of 30,143 observations were obtained over a three-year period. We employ Causal Mediation Analysis (CMA) to examine the micro-level mechanisms between material and psychological poverty among rural farm households. Our findings reveal three key insights. First, material poverty significantly reduces aspiration levels and behavioral capabilities of rural farm households, with impoverished groups scoring approximately 10% lower than non-poor groups. Second, this negative impact operates through two primary channels: stigma effects (self-stigmatization 11.29%, social stigma 4.71%) and psychological resource depletion (negative emotions 1.5%, psychological stress 1.27%). Third, psychological poverty reinforces material poverty through aspiration failure (72.3%) and capability deficiency (75.68%), creating a self-perpetuating “psychological poverty trap” that particularly affects agricultural production efficiency. These findings suggest that sustainable agricultural development requires addressing both material and psychological dimensions of rural poverty. Policy recommendations include strengthening psychological support for farm households, enhancing agricultural capacity building, mitigating stigma effects in rural communities, and reconstructing psychological resources for sustainable development. This integrated approach can help break psychological poverty traps, improve agricultural productivity, and support rural revitalization in China.
... Within the international academic discourse, research on poverty psychology predominantly concentrates on three facets: the attribution of poverty (Feagin, 1972;Wu and Zhang, 2007;Wollie, 2009;Niemela, 2008;Abouchedid and Nasser, 2002;Nasser, 2007;Morçöl, 1997;Pandey et al., 1982;Furnham, 1982), the individual psychological traits of poor populations (Shah et al., 2012;Walker et al., 2013;Gordon et al., 2000;Hobcraft and Kiernan, 2001), and the individual psychological consequences of poverty (Mani et al., 2013;Schilbach et al., 2016;Haushofer and Fehr, 2014). Notably, there is a paucity of studies investigating the behavioral strategies employed by individuals to cope with their state of poverty, thereby creating significant gaps in our understanding of the diversity and complexity of behaviors related to coping with poverty. ...
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... Research on scarcity is extant and has been focusing on numerous aspects on how it affects individuals. Not only it affects individuals in various ways, but its impact is one that we are exposed to throughout our life, from the very young age of six years old (Cialdini, 1993;John et al., 2018;Mani et al., 2013;Sarial-Abi et al., 2021a, 2021bVan Kerckhove, Lunardo, & Fitzsimons, 2020). Additionally, scarcity affects the cognitive and psychological functioning of individuals by either distorting or even deteriorating them (e.g., Mittal, Laran, & Griskevicius, 2020;Sarial-Abi et al., 2021a, 2021b. ...
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Recent research consistently reports that persistent poverty has more detrimental effects on IQ, school achievement, and socioemotional functioning than transitory poverty, with children experiencing both types of poverty generally doing less well than never-poor children. Higher rates of perinatal complications, reduced access to resources that buffer the negative effects of perinatal complications, increased exposure to lead, and less home-based cognitive stimulation partly account for diminished cognitive functioning in poor children. These factors, along with lower teacher expectancies and poorer academic-readiness skills, also appear to contribute to lower levels of school achievement among poor children. The link between socioeconomic disadvantage and children's socioemotional functioning appears to be mediated partly by harsh, inconsistent parenting and elevated exposure to acute and chronic stressors. The implications of research findings for practice and policy are considered.
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This book is a comprehensive survey of our scientific knowledge about human intelligence, written by a researcher who has spent more than 30 years studying the field, receiving a Lifetime Contribution award from the International Society for Intelligence. Human Intelligence takes a non-ideological view of a topic in which, too often, writings are dominated by a single theory or social viewpoint. The book discusses the conceptual status of intelligence as a collection of cognitive skills that include, but also go beyond, those skills evaluated by conventional tests; intelligence tests and their analysis; contemporary theories of intelligence; biological and social causes of intelligence; the importance of intelligence in social, industrial, and educational spheres; the role of intelligence in determining success in life, both inside and outside educational settings; and the nature and causes of variations in intelligence across age, gender, and racial and ethnic groups.
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One in four American adults doesn't have a bank account. Low-income families lack access to many of the basic financial services middle-class families take for granted and are particularly susceptible to financial emergencies, unemployment, loss of a home, and uninsured medical problems. Insufficient Funds explores how institutional constraints and individual decisions combine to produce this striking disparity and recommends policies to help alleviate the problem. Mainstream financial services are both less available and more expensive for low-income households. High fees, minimum-balance policies, and the relative scarcity of banks in poor neighborhoods are key factors. Michael Barr reports the results of an in-depth study of financial behavior in 1,000 low- and moderate-income families in metropolitan Detroit. He finds that most poor households have bank accounts, but combine use of mainstream services with alternative options such as money orders, pawnshops, and payday lenders. Barr suggests that a tax credit for banks serving primarily disadvantaged customers could facilitate greater equality in the private financial sector. Drawing on evidence from behavioral economics, Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir show that low-income individuals exhibit many of the same patterns and weaknesses in financial decision making as middle-class individuals and could benefit from many of the same financial aids. They argue that savings programs that automatically enroll participants and require them to actively opt out in order to leave the program could drastically increase savings ability. Ronald Mann demonstrates that significant changes in the credit market over the past fifteen years have allowed companies to expand credit to a larger share of low-income families. Mann calls for regulations on credit card companies that would require greater disclosure of actual interest rates and fees. Raphael Bostic and Kwan Lee find that while home ownership has risen dramatically over the past twenty years, elevated risks for low-income families-such as foreclosure-may well outweigh the benefits of owning a home. The authors ultimately argue that if we want to demand financial responsibility from low-income households, we have an obligation to assure that these families have access to the banking, credit, and savings institutions that are readily available to higher-income families. Insufficient Funds highlights where and how access is blocked and shows how government policy and individual decisions could combine to eliminate many of these barriers in the future.
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Poor Choices Two categories of reasons for why poor people make economically unsound choices, such as obtaining a payday loan at an extraordinarily high rate of interest, reflect, first, the environment: Poor people are more likely to be living in poor neighborhoods with higher rates of crime and lower rates of social services. Second, they reflect the individual: People are poor in part because of their own psychological dispositions toward impatience and impulsiveness. For both cases, obtaining causal evidence in controlled experiments has been challenging. Shah et al. (p. 682 ; see the Perpective by Zwane ) propose a third category of reasons whereby being poor exerts a bias on cognitive processes and provide evidence for it in laboratory experiments performed in scenarios of scarcity.
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Defaults have such powerful, pervasive and unrecognized effects on consumer behavior that in some settings they may be considered 'hidden persuaders'. Looking at defaults from the perspective of consumer welfare, consumer autonomy and marketing ethics, this paper shows that ignoring defaults is not an option. It identifies three theoretical causes of default effects-implied endorsement, cognitive biases, and effort-to guide thought on the appropriate marketer response to the issues posed for consumer autonomy and welfare. We propose the concepts of "smart defaults" and "adaptive defaults" as welfare-enhancing and market-oriented alternatives to the current practice of generally ignoring default effects, in addition to other remedies. Our analysis highlights how an ethical market orientation would consider the process of consumer decision making as well as its outcomes: marketers bear responsibility for consumer buying mistakes arising from the marketer's inept neglect or misuse of defaults. As well as recommendations for marketing practice, we also identify policymaker and research implications of defaults and consider, more broadly, the ethics of using techniques that influence consumer choice without consumer awareness.
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The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) database on which this article is based offers researchers exciting new possibilities for international comparisons based on household income microdata. Among the choices the LIS microdata allows a researcher, e.g. income definition, income accounting unit, etc., is the choice of family equivalence scale, a method for estimating economic well‐being by adjusting income for measurable differences in need. The range of potential equivalence scales that can and are being used in the ten LIS countries and elsewhere to adjust incomes for size and related differences in need span a wide spectrum. The purpose of this paper is to review the available equivalence scales and to test the sensitivity of various income inequality and poverty measures to choice of equivalence scale using the LIS database. The results of our analysis indicate that choice of equivalence scale can sometimes systematically affect absolute and relative levels of poverty; and inequality and therefore rankings of countries (or population subgroups within countries). Because of these sensitivities, one must carefully consider summary statements and policy implications derived from cross‐national comparisons of poverty and/or inequality.
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We evaluate the results of a field experiment designed to measure the effect of prompts to form implementation intentions on realized behavioral outcomes. The outcome of interest is influenza vaccination receipt at free on-site clinics offered by a large firm to its employees. All employees eligible for study participation received reminder mailings that listed the times and locations of the relevant vaccination clinics. Mailings to employees randomly assigned to the treatment conditions additionally included a prompt to write down either (i) the date the employee planned to be vaccinated or (ii) the date and time the employee planned to be vaccinated. Vaccination rates increased when these implementation intentions prompts were included in the mailing. The vaccination rate among control condition employees was 33.1%. Employees who received the prompt to write down just a date had a vaccination rate 1.5 percentage points higher than the control group, a difference that is not statistically significant. Employees who received the more specific prompt to write down both a date and a time had a 4.2 percentage point higher vaccination rate, a difference that is both statistically significant and of meaningful magnitude.
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The income-achievement gap is a formidable societal problem, but little is known about either neurocognitive or biological mechanisms that might account for income-related deficits in academic achievement. We show that childhood poverty is inversely related to working memory in young adults. Furthermore, this prospective relationship is mediated by elevated chronic stress during childhood. Chronic stress is measured by allostatic load, a biological marker of cumulative wear and tear on the body that is caused by the mobilization of multiple physiological systems in response to chronic environmental demands.
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The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of spending one night without sleep on the performance of complex cognitive tasks, such as problem-solving, in comparison with a purely short-term memory task. One type of task investigated was immediate free recall, assumed to reflect the holding capacity of the working memory. The other type of task investigated was represented by syntactical reasoning and problem-solving tasks, assumed to reflect the processing (the mental transformation of input) and monitoring capacity of the working memory. Two experiments with a repeated-measures design were performed. Experiment 1 showed a significant decline in performance as a function of sleep loss on Raven's progressive matrices, a problem-solving task. No other main effect of sleep loss was found. Experiment 2 had a different order between tasks than Experiment 1 and the time without sleep was increased. A number-series induction task was also used in Experiment 2. A significant, negative effect of sleep loss in performance on Raven's progressive matrices was found in Experiment 2. The effects of sleep loss on the other tasks were nonsignificant. It is suggested that Raven's progressive-matrices task reflects the ability to monitor encoding operations (selective attention) and to monitor mental "computations".
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Performance on an abstracting task by matched groups of hospitalized alcoholics (N = 40), brain damaged (N = 40), and control patients (N = 40) was compared. Alcoholics manifested a deficit on the Halstead Category test similar to that of the brain-damaged subjects. The performance deficit of the alcoholics was related positively to the number of years of drinking, independent of age. The pattern of performance differences in the present investigation along with the results from other investigations suggest that chronic alcoholics may have mild brain damage to the perfrontal area or related subcortical structures or both.
Article
To compare the association of income and education with breast and cervical cancer screening in Ontario, Canada, and the United States. Survey using data from the Ontario Health Survey and the US National Health Interview Survey. A multistage random sample of women aged 18 years and older living in households in Ontario (N = 23,521) and the United States (N = 23,932) in 1990. Persons were considered screened if they reported a Papanicolaou test within the previous 2 years, a clinical breast examination within the previous year, or a mammogram within the previous year. Papanicolaou test and clinical breast examination rates were similar between countries, but mammography rates were two to three times higher in the United States across all age groups. Compared with women with less than a high school degree, college graduates were more likely to receive screening (odds ratio [OR], 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2 to 1.7) and there was no difference between countries. Across all procedures, women with higher incomes were more likely to receive screening. For Papanicolaou test and clinical breast examination, there was no difference between countries. Compared with the lowest income, the OR was 1.7 (95% CI, 1.3 to 2.1) in Ontario and 1.9 (95% CI, 1.6 to 2.2) in the United States for Papanicolaou test and 2.1 (95% CI, 1.6 to 2.8) in Ontario and 2.1 (95% CI, 1.8 to 2.6) in the United States for the clinical breast examination for women with income greater than 45,600(USdollars).Formammographyscreening,theassociationofincomewithusewasgreaterintheUnitedStates:theORwas1.8(9545,600 (US dollars). For mammography screening, the association of income with use was greater in the United States: the OR was 1.8 (95% CI, 1.3 to 2.6) in Ontario and 2.7 (95% CI, 2.3 to 3.2) in the United States for women with income greater than 45,600 (US dollars). Despite the long-time presence of universal insurance coverage in Ontario the disparities in the use of cancer screening procedures by the poor were similar to the United States. Universal coverage is not sufficient to overcome the large disparities in screenings across socioeconomic status demonstrated in both countries.
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Short-term memory storage can be divided into separate subsystems for verbal information and visual information, and recent studies have begun to delineate the neural substrates of these working-memory systems. Although the verbal storage system has been well characterized, the storage capacity of visual working memory has not yet been established for simple, suprathreshold features or for conjunctions of features. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to retain information about only four colours or orientations in visual working memory at one time. However, it is also possible to retain both the colour and the orientation of four objects, indicating that visual working memory stores integrated objects rather than individual features. Indeed, objects defined by a conjunction of four features can be retained in working memory just as well as single-feature objects, allowing sixteen individual features to be retained when distributed across four objects. Thus, the capacity of visual working memory must be understood in terms of integrated objects rather than individual features, which places significant constraints on cognitive and neurobiological models of the temporary storage of visual information.
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A study was conducted in which 133 participants performed 11 memory tasks (some thought to reflect working memory and some thought to reflect short-term memory), 2 tests of general fluid intelligence, and the Verbal and Quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Structural equation modeling suggested that short-term and working memories reflect separate but highly related constructs and that many of the tasks used in the literature as working memory tasks reflect a common construct. Working memory shows a strong connection to fluid intelligence, but short-term memory does not. A theory of working memory capacity and general fluid intelligence is proposed: The authors argue that working memory capacity and fluid intelligence reflect the ability to keep a representation active, particularly in the face of interference and distraction. The authors also discuss the relationship of this capability to controlled attention, and the functions of the prefrontal cortex.
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Data relating to the stability and variation in the norms for the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test (a well-validated measure of basic cognitive functioning) for different cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups on a worldwide and within-country basis are first summarized. Subsequent sections deal with variation over time. A possible explanation for the variation in norms over time and between ethnic groups within countries is offered.
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It is well known that individuals from more advantaged social classes enjoy better mental and physical health than do individuals within lower classes. Various mechanisms have been evoked to explain the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health. One mechanism that has received particular attention in recent years is stress. It has been shown that individuals lower in SES report greater exposure to stressful life events and a greater impact of these events on their life than individuals higher in SES. In order to measure whether the development of the relationship between SES and mental health is sustained by exposure to high levels of glucocorticoids, we measured morning salivary cortisol levels as well as cognitive function (memory, attention, and language) in 307 children (from 6 to 16 years of age) from low versus high SES in the Montreal area in Canada. The results revealed that low SES children from 6 to 10 years old present significantly higher salivary cortisol levels when compared to children from high SES. This difference disappears at the time of school transition, and no SES differences are observed in salivary cortisol levels during high school. However, children from low and high SES do not differ with regard to memory or to attentional and linguistic functions. Also, mothers of low SES children reported higher feelings of depression and more unhealthy behaviors, while mothers of high SES children reported higher stress related to work or family transitions. Altogether, these results show that low SES in young children is related to increased cortisol secretion, although the impact of SES on cortisol secretion is absent after transition to high school. These data are interpreted within the context of the equalization process of class patterning. Four social explanatory factors are suggested to explain the disappearance of SES differences in basal cortisol levels after school transition, taking into account the influence of family environment on the child's secretion of stress hormones.
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Little is known about which patients miss appointments or why they do so. Using routinely collected data from four practices, we aimed to determine whether patients who missed appointments differed in terms of their age, sex, and deprivation scores from those who did not, and to examine differences between the practices with respect to missed appointments. The likelihood of someone missing at least one appointment was independently associated with being female, living in a deprived area, and being a young adult. Living in a deprived area was associated with a threefold increase in the likelihood of missing an appointment, and the extent of this association was the same across all four practices. Interventions aimed at reducing missed appointments need to be based upon these findings.
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Adherence is a factor in the outcome of medical treatment, but the strength and moderators of the adherence-outcome association have not been systematically assessed. A quantitative review using meta-analysis of three decades of empirical research correlating adherence with objective measures of treatment outcomes. Sixty-three studies assessing patient adherence and outcomes of medical treatment were found involving medical regimens recommended by a nonpsychiatrist physician, and measuring patient adherence and health outcomes. Studies were analyzed according to disease (acute/chronic, severity), population (adult/child), type of regimen (preventive/treatment, use of medication), and type and sensitivity of adherence and outcomes measurements. Overall, the outcome difference between high and low adherence is 26%. According to a stringent random effects model, adherence is most strongly related to outcomes in studies of nonmedication regimens, where measures of adherence are continuous, and where the disease is chronic (particularly hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, intestinal disease, and sleep apnea). A less stringent fixed effects model shows a trend for higher adherence-outcome correlations in studies of less serious conditions, of pediatric patients, and in those studies using self-reports of adherence, multiple measures of adherence, and less specific measures of outcomes. Intercorrelations among moderator variables in multiple regression show that the best predictor of the adherence-outcome relationship is methodological-the sensitivity/quality of the adherence assessment.
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When patients miss scheduled medical appointments, continuity and effectiveness of healthcare delivery is reduced, appropriate monitoring of health status lapses, and the cost of health services increases. We evaluated the relationship between missed appointments and glycemic control (glycosylated hemoglobin or HbA1c) in a large, managed care population of diabetic patients. Missed appointment rate was related cross-sectionally to glycemic control among 84,040 members of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Diabetes Registry during 2000. Adjusted least-square mean estimates of HbA1c were derived by level of appointment keeping (none missed, 1-30% missed, and >30% missed appointments for the calendar year) stratified by diabetes therapy. Twelve percent of the subjects missed more than 30% of scheduled appointments during 2000. Greater rates of missed appointments were associated with significantly poorer glycemic control after adjusting for demographic factors (age, sex), clinical status, and health care utilization. The adjusted mean HbA1c among members who missed >30% of scheduled appointments was 0.70 to 0.79 points higher (P <0.0001) relative to those attending all appointments. Patients who missed more than 30% of their appointments were less likely to practice daily self-monitoring of blood glucose and to have poor oral medication refill adherence. Patients who underuse care lack recorded information needed to determine level of risk. Frequently missed appointments were associated with poorer glycemic control and suboptimal diabetes self-management practice, are readily ascertained in clinical settings, and therefore could have clinical utility as a risk-stratifying criterion indicating the need for targeted case management.
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The effects of stress on learning and memory are not always clear: both facilitating and impairing influences are described in the literature. Here we propose a unifying theory, which states that stress will only facilitate learning and memory processes: (i) when stress is experienced in the context and around the time of the event that needs to be remembered, and (ii) when the hormones and transmitters released in response to stress exert their actions on the same circuits as those activated by the situation, that is, when convergence in time and space takes place. The mechanism of action of stress hormones, particularly corticosteroids, can explain how stress within the context of a learning experience induces focused attention and improves memory of relevant information.
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The researchers examined how financial stress was associated with absenteeism of credit counseling clients. Data were collected by a national non-profit credit counseling organization, from consumers who telephoned seeking assistance in debt management. The results indicate credit counseling clients’ financial stress affects their absenteeism at work. Clients with high levels of financial stress are more likely to experience higher levels of absenteeism; thus spending work hours handling personal finances, which decreases the time they are at work. The results suggest some insight into providing financial education and assistance for employees with financial strains as productivity loss might influence their pay.
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The standard economic model of decision making assumes a decision maker makes her choices to maximize her utility or happiness. Her current emotional state is not explicitly considered. Yet there is a large psychological literature that shows that current emotional state, in particular positive a#ect, has a signi cant e#ect on decision making. This paper o#ers a way to incorporate this insight from psychology into economic modeling. Moreover, this paper shows that this simple insight can parsimoniously explain a wide variety of behaviors. Keywords: A#ect, morale, emotion. JEL: B41, D99, C70, C73, D81. 1 Introduction A moment s introspection will convince most people that their decisions are in uenced, in part, by their mood. For instance, the decisions we make when happy are not always the same as those we make when unhappy. Nor is this merely an impression: There is a large psychological literature based on experiments that nds a relationship between a#ect what non-psychologists mi...
  • DiMatteo
Measuring poverty” (Working Paper Princeton Research Program in Development Studies
  • A Deaton
Hitch in The Psychology of Learning and
  • A Baddeley
DiGirolamo in The Attentive Brain R. Parasuraman Ed
  • M I Posner
Shafir Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much
  • E S. Mullainathan
Happiness and productivity” (Working Paper Univ
  • Oswald E Proto
  • D Sgroi