| Kasz216 said: That is one i'm definitely going to have to read the journal article on... it will be interesting to see how they controlled factors. (if they did at all). Based on the article it just seems like another case of science journalism being... stupid.
I mean, essentially what it's saying is "stressed out people find it harder to concentrate". Which spaital reasoning needs more then most other kinds of reasoning. I'd guess basically none of the claims in the article are made in the actual scientific journal article. |
Just like the whole climate change debate causes people to have to rethink their political views, the idea that poverty may cause people to get trapped and not be able to do well, rather than a consequence of bad behavior with no impact (thus the poor deserve to be poor, because they are loser), I can individuals wouldn't want to think this so, because it means you CAN do welfare and it help people.
Anyhow, maybe you don't consider the journal Science an actual scientific Journal:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/29/poverty-mental-capacity-complex-tasks
Poor people spend so much mental energy on the immediate problems of paying bills and cutting costs that they are left with less capacity to deal with other complex but important tasks, including education, training or managing their time, suggests research published on Thursday.
The cognitive deficit of being preoccupied with money problems was equivalent to a loss of 13 IQ points, losing an entire night's sleep or being a chronic alcoholic, according to the study. The authors say this could explain why poorer people are more likely to make mistakes or bad decisions that exacerbate their financial difficulties.
....
Anandi Mani, a research fellow at the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy at the University of Warwick, one of the four authors of the study, said the findings also suggest how small interventions or "nudges" at appropriate moments to help poor people access services and resources could help them break out of the povertytrap. Writing in the journal Science, Mani said previous research has found that poor people use less preventive health care, do not stick to drug regimens, are tardier and less likely to keep appointments, are less productive workers, less attentive parents, and worse managers of their finances. "The question we therefore wanted to address is, is that a cause of poverty or a consequence of poverty?"
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976
