Poverty consumes so much mental energy that people struggling to make ends meet often have little brainpower left for anything else, leaving them more susceptible to bad decisions that can perpetuate their situation, claims a new study.
"Past research has often blamed (poverty) on the personal failings of the poor. They don't work hard enough; they're not focused enough," said Jiaying Zhao, a University of British Columbia professor and one of the authors of the study, published Thursday in the journal Science. "What we're arguing is it's not about the individual. It's about the situation."
As part of the study, researchers conducted experiments on two groups of subjects: low- and middle-income shoppers in a mall in New Jersey, and sugar cane farmers in rural India.