richardhutnik said:
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?" |
By "science journal silliness" I mean that what is reprorted by the media is pretty much never what's actually in the science abstracts and in their official papers. It's just things done to get hits.
Also you missed the part in your article where they actually suggest welfare makes it worse somehow...
Though no, the Journal Science is an actual scientific journal. It's not like, a specialists journal or anything though, and it's been known to veer off into editorilizing rather then science at times.
Looking up the article though.
The abstract is weird, because again... that's not what they're actually testing. They're looking at spatial reasoning... then an IQ test... neither of which are really exactly "decision making" choices.
Again all the expeirments show on the face is... "when distracted people do worse on tests."
Which, anybody could of told you. If you need money and are distracted you are going to do less well on an IQ test, spatial test or really any other test that requires thinkign and conversation... that's supposed to be a surprise and radically change how people think?
All the journal seems to say is "Rich people can't be distracted by monetary concerns as eaisly."
