A scarcity mindset alters neural processing underlying consumer decision making

Abstract

Not having enough of what one needs has long been shown to have detrimental consequences for decision making. Recent work suggests that the experience of insufficient resources can create a “scarcity” mindset; increasing attention toward the scarce resource itself, but at the cost of attention for unrelated aspects. To investigate the effects of a scarcity mindset on consumer choice behavior, as well as its underlying neural mechanisms, we used an experimental manipulation to induce both a scarcity and an abundance mindset within participants and examined the effects of both mindsets on participants’ willingness to pay for familiar food items while being scanned using fMRI. Results demonstrated that a scarcity mindset affects neural mechanisms related to consumer decision making. When in a scarcity mindset compared with an abundance mindset, participants had increased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, a region often implicated in valuation processes. Moreover, again compared with abundance, a scarcity mindset decreased activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area well known for its role in goal-directed choice. This effect was predominant in the group of participants who experienced scarcity following abundance, suggesting that the effects of scarcity are largest when they are compared with previous situations when resources were plentiful. More broadly, these data suggest a potential neural locus for a scarcity mindset and demonstrate how these changes in brain activity might underlie goal-directed decision making.

Hunger in the household: Food insecurity and associations with maternal eating and toddler feeding

“…Although the current study did not directly examine mothers' underlying reasons for restrained eating in the context of increases in household food insecurity, the additional cognitive capacity required to inhibit eating likely increases psychological stress on low-income mothers, 9,51 increasing risk for further mental health concerns among an already health disparate population, which should be of concern to practitioners and public health officials alike.…”

“…1.1 | Household food insecurity, maternal restrained eating, and child feeding practices Both theory and empirical research suggest that the perception of limited resources (eg, money, time, and food) can have a profound impact on decision-making and health behaviors that impact obesity risk for mothers and their children. 9,10 According to the family stress model, 11 household food insecurity is an economic pressure that affects parents' psychological stress, which in turn affects parenting behavior. 12…”

Variable Cognition in ABM Decision-Making: An Application to Livestock Vaccine Choice

“…The effect of altering only β (rationality) or both µ (memory) and β (rationality) on the susceptibility of cattle to RVF and CBPP is meaningful. Modeling the effect of dynamic cognitive capacity, whether uniform or non-uniform across a population, on a range of decision contexts is supported by detailed experimental and non-experimental findings [(Choi and Iles, under review); (36)]. The incorporation of an RFIM for decision making within an ABM, as demonstrated by the PastoralScape model, provides a clear avenue to extend livestock disease modeling (6).…”

“…The parameterisation of head-of-household memory and "rationality" provides flexibility to model two important aspects of cognitive ability (32-34). Human cognitive ability or capacity are believed to change over time due to stress, anxiety and the perception of these (10,35,36). According to Mullainathan and Shafir's "scarcity thesis, " perceptions of household financial stress act as a tax on cognitive capacity [(9); (Iles et al, under review)].…”

Resource Scarcity

“…The link between resource scarcity and cognitive scarcity is likely to be a fundamental part of human psychology. For instance, Huijsmans et al (2019) found in an fMRI study that the inducement of scarcity vs. abundance mindsets activated different neural networks associated with valuation and goal-directed choice. Given its underlying neurological basis, attentional focus and neglect due to scarcity are likely to shape heterogeneous domains of behavior.…”