Does poverty promote a different and harmful way of thinking? The links between economic scarcity, concrete construal level and risk behaviors
Entity
UAM. Departamento de Psicología Social y MetodologíaPublisher
SpringerDate
2021-10-15Citation
10.1007/s12144-021-02382-3
Current Psychology (2021): 15 October 2021
ISSN
1936-4733DOI
10.1007/s12144-021-02382-3Funded by
This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation in Spain (PGC2018–093821-B-I00, FEDER, MICINN, Carrera and Caballero PIs)Project
Gobierno de España. PGC2018–093821-B-I00Editor's Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02382-3Subjects
Concrete mindset; Construal level; Economic scarcity; Risk behaviors; PsicologíaRights
© The Author(s) 2021Abstract
We tested the relationships between economic scarcity, concrete construal level and risk behaviors. We manipulated the lack of economic resources using a priming task in Studies 1 and 2, and participants reported their real income and completed the BIF scale to measure their construal level in Study 3. Studies 1–3 supported the link between perceived economic scarcity and the concrete construal level. Study 4 demonstrated the mediating role played by the concrete construal level in the influence of economic scarcity on risk behaviors using two opposite priming procedures (scarcity plus abstraction). Study 5, in a real context of economic vulnerability, supported the link between concrete mindset and risk behavioral intentions, while abstraction was associated with fewer risk intentions. Concrete thinking implies focusing on the immediate situation, which might facilitate adaptation to the demanding conditions that characterize scarcity contexts but leaves people without a broad perspective of the future to make safe decisions in situations that involve self-control, such as health-risk behaviors. Because an abstract construal level can be induced, these findings open up challenging ways to improve the conditions in which people in scarcity contexts make some behavioral decisions while we continue working to reduce situations of economic scarcity
Files in this item
Google Scholar:Caballero, Amparo
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Fernández, Itziar
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Aguilar, Pilar
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Muñoz, Dolores
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Carrera, Pilar
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