It's really easy to put the blame of poverty on poor people by saying that they have bad spending habits and that a little bit of saving might go far for them. So many people put the blame on them everyday. But through research we now know that those living in poverty don't suffer from poor self-control.
I want to first take you back to a post about delaying gratification that I once wrote on this blog. It was on the Marshmallow Test that was supposed to be a good indicator of future success. If you haven't read it already click here. Here's the catch. The Marshmallow test is only a good indicator for those children who were given the assurance of an additional marshmallow from a reliable researcher. When the study was modified with unreliable experimenters, the children were much more likely to eat the marshmallow while they could.
Poor people have been forced to live in the now because of an unreliable environment. It's hard to plan for the future when you can barely put food on the table today. With the rising prices of food and basic necessities, it becomes extremely difficult for these people to save money at all. To make matters worse, a uncertain financial state leads to an IQ drop of 13 points on average. It's just simply harder to think straight — especially when in comes to higher order thinking that is associated with self-control.
Self-control, as defined by scientists, is an important measure for people who can think about the future because they have financial security in the present, but the definition of self-control just doesn't fit for people living in poverty and the present permanently.
I want to first take you back to a post about delaying gratification that I once wrote on this blog. It was on the Marshmallow Test that was supposed to be a good indicator of future success. If you haven't read it already click here. Here's the catch. The Marshmallow test is only a good indicator for those children who were given the assurance of an additional marshmallow from a reliable researcher. When the study was modified with unreliable experimenters, the children were much more likely to eat the marshmallow while they could.
Poor people have been forced to live in the now because of an unreliable environment. It's hard to plan for the future when you can barely put food on the table today. With the rising prices of food and basic necessities, it becomes extremely difficult for these people to save money at all. To make matters worse, a uncertain financial state leads to an IQ drop of 13 points on average. It's just simply harder to think straight — especially when in comes to higher order thinking that is associated with self-control.
Self-control, as defined by scientists, is an important measure for people who can think about the future because they have financial security in the present, but the definition of self-control just doesn't fit for people living in poverty and the present permanently.