Does poverty promote a different and harmful way of thinking? The links between economic scarcity, concrete construal level and risk behaviors

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21622810
AutoresAmparo Caballero (0000-0001-5809-0940, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Itziar Fernandez (0000-0002-6905-2111, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia), Pilar Aguilar (0000-0003-0032-6273, Universidad Loyola Andalucía), Dolores Muñoz (0000-0001-6100-3166, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Pilar Carrera (0000-0002-5411-2097, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen42
Número10
Páginas8402-8413
Fecha de publicación2023-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCurrent Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1046-1310 • E-ISSN: 1936-4733
EditorialSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12144-021-02382-3
OpenAlexW3206972014
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas38

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

Computer security · Construal level theory · Economics · Geography · Microeconomics · Mindset · Scarcity · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Cultural Differences and Values · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology