Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much (29 page)

44   
push a button when you see a red dot on the screen
:
R. M. Piech, M. T. Pastorino, and D. H. Zald, “All I Saw Was the Cake: Hunger Effects on Attentional Capture by Visual Food Cues,”
Appetite
54, no. 3 (2010): 579. The notion that certain mental or physical events can capture attention has been an enduring topic in the study of attention owing to the importance of understanding how goal-directed and stimulus-driven processes interact in perception and cognition.

45   
we gave subjects word searches
:
This is from unpublished work with Christopher Bryan; C. J. Bryan, S. Mullainathan, and E. Shafir, “Tempting Food, Cognitive Load and Impaired Decision-Making,” invited talk at the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Washington, D.C., April 2010.

46   
The
DONUT
was the problem
:
389 subjects participated in the study. The difference in time taken by dieters after seeing food words versus neutral words was highly significant (p = .003). As well, there was a significant interaction between the difference in times taken for neutral versus food words by dieters versus nondieters (p = .047). Subjects were given modest incentives to find as many words as they could.

47   
Much like a central processor
:
Cognitive and neuroscience researchers have focused on the mechanisms and brain structures by which executive or cognitive control guides behavior. See, for example, G. J. DiGirolamo, “Executive Attention: Conflict, Target Detection, and Cognitive Control,” in
The Attentive Brain
, ed. Raja Parasuraman (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998), 401–23.

48   
Raven’s Progressive Matrices test
:
J. Raven et al.,
Manual for Raven’s Progressive Matrices and Vocabulary Scales
, research supplement no. 3, 2nd/3rd edition (Oxford: Oxford Psychologists Press/San Antonio, Tex.: The Psychological Corporation, 1990/2000): A compendium of international and North American normative and validity studies together with a review of the use of the RPM in neuropsychological assessment.

48   
It is a common component of IQ tests
:
J. Raven, “The Raven’s Progressive Matrices: Change and Stability over Culture and Time,”
Cognitive Psychology
41, no. 1 (2000): 1–48.

49   
Those who have familiarity with tests and test taking
:
J. Raven, Ibid. It is worth noting that researchers have argued that gains from education can explain only a small fraction of gains in IQ scores; see, e.g., J. R. Flynn, “Massive IQ Gains in 14 Nations: What IQ Tests Really Measure,”
Psychological Bulletin
101 (1987): 171–91. A forceful case for environmental and cultural influences on IQ is Richard Nisbett’s
Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2010).

49   
people in a New Jersey mall
:
These experiments are summarized along with details on sample sizes and p-values in Anandi Mani, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir, and Jiaying Zhao, “Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function” (working paper, 2012).

50   
unable to come up with $2,000 in thirty days
:
A. Lusardi, D. J. Schneider, and P. Tufano,
Financially Fragile Households: Evidence
and Implications
(National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 17072, May 2011).

51   
the effects were equally big
:
For those interested in the magnitude, the effect size ranged between Cohen’s
d
of 0.88 and 0.94. Cohen’s
d
can be calculated as the difference between means divided by the pooled standard deviation.

51   
a benchmark from a study on sleep
:
L. Linde and M. Bergströme, “The Effect of One Night without Sleep on Problem-Solving and Immediate Recall,”
Psychological Research
54, no. 2 (1992): 127–36. In general, a large body of research has shown the detrimental effects of lack of sleep on a variety of cognitive processes, from attention and memory to planning and decision making. A compendium of the latest research is in Gerard A. Kerkhof and Hans Van Dongen,
Human Sleep and Cognition: Basic Research
185 (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 2010).

52   
about five IQ points
:
“What Is a Genius IQ Score?”
About.com
Psychology
, retrieved October 23, 2012, from
http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologicaltesting/f/genius-iq-score.htm
.

52   
Walter Mischel and his colleagues
:
W. Mischel, E. B. Ebbesen, and A. Raskoff Zeiss, “Cognitive and Attentional Mechanisms in Delay of Gratification,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
21, no. 2 (1972): 204. In follow-up studies years later, Mischel and colleagues found a remarkable predictability of cognitive and social competencies in their now grown subjects, which has enriched researchers’ thinking about the role of individual versus situational determinants of behavior; W. Mischel, Y. Shoda, and P. K. Peake, “The Nature of Adolescent Competencies Predicted by Preschool Delay of Gratification,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
54, no. 4 (April 1988): 687–96.

53   
“the intimate contest for self-command”
:
Thomas C. Schelling,
Choice and Consequence
(Boston: Harvard University Press, 1985).

53   
personality, fatigue, and attention
:
Roy Baumeister, Kathleen Vohs, Mark Muraven, and their collaborators have conducted numerous studies documenting what they call ego depletion, and the maintenance and reduction of executive and self-control. For a recent statement and review of the literature, see R. F. Baumeister and J. Tierney,
Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
(New York: Penguin Press, 2011).

53   
The children who were most successful in resisting
:
Mischel, Ebbesen, and Raskoff Zeiss, “Cognitive and Attentional Mechanisms.”

53   
“Once you realize that willpower”
:
J. Lehrer, “DON’T!”
New Yorker
, May 18, 2009.

54   
a memory task
:
B. Shiv and A. Fedorikhin, “Heart and Mind in Conflict: The Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making,”
Journal of Consumer Research
26, no. 3 (1999): 278–92. doi:10.1086/209563.

54   
a chicken foot cooked in a Chinese style
:
W. von Hippel and K. Gonsalkorale, “ ‘That Is Bloody Revolting!’: Inhibitory Control of Thoughts Better Left Unsaid,”
Psychological Science
16, no. 7 (2005): 497–500. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01563.x.

57   
As we expected
:
The details of this study can also be found in Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir, and Zhao, “Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function.”

58   
It is hard for the same reason
:
The standard Stroop task asks subjects to name the font colors of strings of letters. So
XKYD
may be written in a blue font and subjects must say “Blue.” The challenge of Stroop is that some of the strings themselves spell out a color. So for example
RED
may be written in a blue font, posing a challenge. A very nice summary of Stroop is found in Colin M. MacLeod, “Half a Century of Research on the Stroop Effect: An Integrative Review,”
Psychological Bulletin
109, no. 2 (March 1991): 163–203. An oft-repeated anecdote is that the Stroop test was used to detect Soviet spies. Seeing синий written in a red font poses no problem for most of us. But spies—due to their hidden fluency in Russian—would stumble on naming the red font because this is the Russian word for “blue.”

58   
On the executive control task
:
Details in Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir, and Zhao, “Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function.”

59   
Worse nutrition and simple hunger
:
See, for example, K. Alaimo, C. M. Olson, and E. A. Frongillo Jr., “Food Insufficiency and American School-Aged Children’s Cognitive, Academic, and Psychosocial Development,”
Pediatrics
108, no. 1 (2001): 44–53.

60   
There are other minor quibbles
:
One problem is that postharvest subjects were taking these tests a second time. Improved performance postharvest could be due just to experience with the test. To control for this, we held back one hundred randomly selected
farmers and had them take the test for the first time postharvest. Since they were randomly selected, we compared them to preharvest farmers and found a similar effect, suggesting our effects are not due to experience with the tests. We also surveyed a sample of farmers who were postharvest but who, due to delay in payments, were still poor. These postharvest farmers behaved similarly to the preharvest farmers, suggesting the mechanics of harvest do not drive our results.

60   
About that time, it occurred to me
:
N. Kusz, “The Fat Lady Sings,” in
The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage
(New York: William Morrow, 2002).

60   
because they are partly preoccupied with food
:
D. Borchmann,
Fasting, Restrained Eating, and Cognitive Performance—A Literature Review from 1998 to 2006.

61   
from a simple lack of calories
:
One study found that giving dieters a chocolate bar—and thereby calories—actually worsened cognitive performance. This was attributed to the fact that they were now more preoccupied with food (“What will I need to give up for this chocolate bar?”). N. Jones and P. J. Rogers, “Preoccupation, Food, and Failure: An Investigation of Cognitive Performance Deficits in Dieters,”
International Journal of Eating Disorders
33, no. 2 (March 2003): 185–92.

61   
a
dichotic listening task
:
J. T. Cacioppo, J. M. Ernst, M. H. Burleson, M. K. McClintock, W. B. Malarkey, L. C. Hawkley, R. B. Kowalewski et al., “Lonely Traits and Concomitant Physiological Processes: The MacArthur Social Neuroscience Studies,”
International Journal of Psychophysiology
35, no. 2 (2000): 143–54.

61   
verbal information presented to the right ear is easier
:
Ibid.

62   
now the lonely did significantly less well
:
For an overview of all these studies, see John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick,
Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2009).

62   
either socially well adjusted or else very lonely
:
R. F. Baumeister, J. M. Twenge, and C. K. Nuss, “Effects of Social Exclusion on Cognitive Processes: Anticipated Aloneness Reduces Intelligent Thought,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
83, no. 4 (2002): 817.

62   
they ate roughly twice as many
:
R. F. Baumeister, C. N. DeWall, N. J. Ciarocco, and J. M. Twenge, “Social Exclusion Impairs Self-Regulation,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
88, no. 4 (2005): 589.

62   
a substantially higher consumption of fatty foods
:
W. Lauder, K. Mummery, M. Jones, and C. Caperchione, “A Comparison of Health Behaviours in Lonely and Non-Lonely Populations,”
Psychology, Health and Medicine
11, no. 2 (2006): 233–45. doi:10.1080/13548500500266607.

62   
do worse on the heart–flower task
:
The details of this study can also be found in Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir, and Zhao, “Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function.”

63   
considerable progress in the understanding of stress
:
L. E. Bourne and R. A. Yaroush, “Stress and Cognition: A Cognitive Psychological Perspective,” unpublished manuscript, NASA grant NAG2-1561 (2003), retrieved from
http://humansystems.arc.nasa.gov/ eas/download/non_EAS/Stress_and_Cognition.pdf
. See also Bruce McEwen’s
The End of Stress as We Know It
(New York: Joseph Henry Press/Dana Press, 2002).

63   
the biochemistry of the generalized stress response
:
A wonderful summary of this area of research can be found in Robert M. Sapolsky,
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers
(New York: Henry Holt, 1994).

64   
stress
heightens
working memory
:
S. Vijayraghavan, M. Wang, S. G. Birnbaum, G. V. Williams, and A. F. T. Arnsten, “Inverted-U Dopamine D1 Receptor Actions on Prefrontal Neurons Engaged in Working Memory,”
Nature Neuroscience
10, no. 3 (2007): 376–84. doi:10.1038/nn1846.

64   
executive control might improve during periods of stress
:
G. Robert and J. Hockey, “Compensatory Control in the Regulation of Human Performance under Stress and High Workload: A Cognitive-Energetical Framework,”
Biological Psychology
45, no. 1 (1997): 73–93.

70   
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this
:
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
The Chance for Peace
(U.S. Government Printing Office, April 16, 1953).

72   
a survey of commuters
:
Just over one hundred commuters were interviewed; p <.05.

72   
The poor reported trade-off thinking almost twice as often as the better off
:
Interesting related results can be found here as well: Stephen Spiller, “Opportunity Cost Consideration,”
Journal of Consumer Research
(forthcoming).

73   
both the rich and the poor reported trade-offs
:
274 subjects in Tamil Nadu were surveyed in 2009. Income here was proxied for by comparing rural and urban respondents—there was a sixfold difference between them in income. The difference for the blender was significant at p < .01. The difference for the TV was neither economically nor statistically significant (58.6 percent vs. 60.8 percent).