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

Bibliographic Data

ID21622810
AuthorsAmparo 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, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume42
Issue10
Pages8402-8413
Publication date2023-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1046-1310 • E-ISSN: 1936-4733
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12144-021-02382-3
OpenAlexW3206972014
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited38

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