🧠 Psychologypublished 2w ago
Financial poverty consumes the equivalent of 13 IQ points
In a landmark 2013 study, researchers tracked Indian sugarcane farmers who receive their entire annual income at harvest. Tested before and after harvest, the exact same individuals scored roughly 25% better on cognitive tests with money in the bank than when broke. Constantly juggling scarce resources consumes so much mental bandwidth that it imposes a cognitive tax equivalent to dropping 13 IQ points—or enduring an entire night of total sleep deprivation.
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