Poverty of Mind: the Cognitive Debt of the Poor

A study by UK Warwick University has proved that poverty has a negative causal effect on cognitive ability. The effect is signficant — equal to losing a full night’s sleep or comparable to the reduction of cognitive performance in alcoholic adults.

The pressures of poverty exhaust cognitive resources, hinders the ability to make positive life choices and shackles the poor to life-long poverty.

The study, “Poverty Impedes Cognition” led by Dr Anandi Mani, Economics Professor at Warwick University, (link) sheds new light on the prison of poverty proving for the first time that it is the flaw of poverty, not the poor, that maintains the poverty cycle.

“The poor, in this view, are less capable not because of inherent traits, but because the very context of poverty imposes load and impedes cognitive capacity.”

She adds; “The findings,in otherwords, are not about poor people, but about any people who find themselves poor.” Dr Anandi Mani, Economics Professor, Warwick University.

Research techniques

Poverty was defined in the study broadly as ” the gap between one’s needs and the resources available to fulfull them,” enabling the study of both developed and developing countries.

To prove the hypothesis that monetary concerns tax the cognitive system, cognitive excercises were conducted on participants recruited from a New Jersey Shopping Mall consisting of a “poor” group (average $20,000 household income) and a “well-off” (average $70,000 household income) group.

The laboratory testings were backed up with field tests on farmers; an ideal candidate for study due to the cyclic experience of poverty and wealth during the planting cycle.

Test 1 – poor v rich group

The two groups were given identical reasoning tests which were designed to induce thoughts about finance, specifically their own.

Participants were asked to problem solve to find the best method of repair for a car. One solution involved a minimal cost of $150, the other $1,500.

The solution involving $1,500 reduced cognitive performance among the poor but not in the well-off group. Dr Mani comments on the significance -

“Just as an air traffic controller focusing on a potential collision course is prone to neglect other planes in the air, the poor, when attending to monetary concerns, lose their capacity to give other problems their full consideration.”

The hypothesis of the cognitive testing was thus proved. Financial problems were not seen to cause concern in those with sufficient resources. For those without adequate funds the “load” of a financial problem can overwhelm the cognitive system -

“We hypothesized that for the rich, these run-of-the-mill financial snags are of little con- sequence. For the poor, however, these demands can trigger persistent and distracting concerns.” Dr Anandi Mani.

Test 2 – Harvesting cognition

Farmers were tested for their cognitive ability during the planting cycle. Before harvest when “poor,” farmers were less likley to perform well in cognitive tests. After harvest when “rich,” the cognitive performance of farmers significantly improved.

This proved the cognitive depletion in the same group of people who experience cycles of wealth. According to researchers, the findings could not be explained by nutrition, time available, stress or work effort alone.

The human cognitive system has lim- ited capacity Preoccupations with press- ing budgetary concerns leave fewer cognitive resources available to guide choice and action.

The researchers pointed that health programmes can be timed around the harvest to ensure that campaigns, such as the HIV campaign can be

A new insight into poverty

Reserach into poverty has focused mainly on the behaviours of the poor; low attainment in education, struggling with appointments, budgeting personal finance, engagement with services. This study is the first to look into how the behaviuors that excasperate poverty first come about.

The study allows for a deeper understanding of poverty and is the first of its kind to prove that cognition is affected by the obstacles that poverty gives rise to.

Researchers hope that the findings inform policy makers to make education, training, health and funding straight forward and easy to access. Policy makers should avoid all complexity or a “cognitive tax” on the poor -

“First, policy-makers should beware of imposing cognitive taxes on the poor just as they avoid monetary taxes on the poor. The data reported here suggest a different perspective on poverty: Being poor means coping not just with a shortfall of money, but also with a concurrent shortfall of cognitive resources.”

Researcher suggest simple and cheap interventions such as -

- smart defaults (selections put in place that serve most people)

- help to fill out application forms

- planning prompts

- reminders for appointments

Policy and Poverty

“Filling out long forms, preparing for a lengthy interview, deciphering new rules, corresponding to complex incentives,all consume cognitive resources. Policy-makers rarely recognize these cognitive taxes; yet, our results suggest that they should focuson reducing them.”

The benefit system can be labryinthin. Historical decisions by government can mean that puzzling systems are in place to serve the most vulnerable.

In a deprived UK coastal town, a community centre for section 4 failed asylum seekers supported by NASA are given food vouchers as subsidy with no other means of financial support. This means a food voucher is issued, but no means to buy a bus ticket to get to the supermarket – a large store on the outskirts of town.

A 2 mile walk of 45 minutes for those who know the best route. This town is a dispersion centre for newly failed asylum seekers – many have just arrived from other parts of the UK to miserably eek out a non life where everything is no – no right to volunteer, attend free training, work even. The weekly voucher is their lot. As they walk to the main supermarket, they will pass countless stores that would provide goods for cheaper.

This was the case in 2010. Shortly after an “Azure” card replaced the vouchers for one store to enable fairer shopping. It rarely worked (link).

The vouchers forced asylum seekers to sell food vouchers; nearly always being ripped off and at the same time risking their tentative section 4 status.

“This page explains how you may qualify for short-term support if your application for asylum was unsuccessful, but you temporarily cannot return to the country you came from and will otherwise be homeless or unable to afford food. (We call this ‘destitute’.)”

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/asylum/support/apply/section4/

Notes:

Science Magazine: Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976

Medical News Today article

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265501.php

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