Scarcity Captures Attention and Induces Neglect: Eyetracking and Behavoral Evidence

Abstract

Scarcity poses challenging demands on the mind that can make escaping scarcity difficult. Using eyetracking and behavioral evidence, we find that scarcity induces an attentional focus, enhancing processing of scarcity-relevant information, while at the same time causing a failure to notice peripheral material, including information that may have proven beneficial in alleviating the scarcity condition. Participants were randomly assigned to a scarcity condition (with a small budget) or a control condition (with a large budget) while ordering a meal from a menu in a lab setting, while their eye gaze was tracked. We found that, compared to controls, participants under financial scarcity looked more at price information but less at the food items, calories and a discount that could alleviate their budget constraint (Experiment 1). In a subsequent memory test, participants under scarcity recalled price information more accurately than control participants (Experiment 2), and likewise those under calorie scarcity recalled calorie information more accurately than controls (Experiment 3). The results were replicated in a larger participant sample, where those under scarcity were less likely to request the discount than control participants (Experiment 4, Experiment 5 as a pre-registered replication). This neglect could be due to limited attention to peripheral information under scarcity (Experiment 6). These results support the notion that scarcity induces an attentional focus on scarcity-relevant information, while causing neglect elsewhere, including of beneficial information that can alleviate the scarcity condition. The findings help explain a range of counter-productive behaviors under scarcity and suggest ways to think about policy design and implementation to better guide attention and prevent neglect.

Resource constraints lead to biased attention but decrease unethical behavior

“…Instead, it appears that participants experiencing scarcity generally failed to notice bene cial information that could reveal the correct answer to the task and potentially alleviate their nancial burden. This aligns with prior work showing that scarcity can tunnel attention towards immediate and sure resource gains (Mullainathan & Sha r, 2014); constricting attention from more bene cial decision-making strategies that might better alleviate the experienced scarcity (Tomm & Zhao, 2016;.…”

“…Albeit participants who experienced acute nancial scarcity behaved less unethically, they still displayed strong attentional bias towards the high-paying choice, while participants in a uence distributed attention more evenly on the screen (H2). This relationship aligns with prior evidence suggesting that experiences of scarcity can capture attention and direct focus towards choices that might aid in alleviating the experience of scarcity in the short term (Mani et al, 2013, Tomm & Zhao, 2016, although participants in this study ultimately do not act on this information. These results could suggest two things.…”

“…Crucially, no prior studies have investigated how resource-deprived individuals' attentional processing might predict their unethical behavior. Only one prior study has investigated how scarcity-induced focus regulation is manifested in gaze behavior (Tomm & Zhao, 2016). This study found that experiences of scarcity increased people's attention towards price-relevant information, which led to less attention towards bene cial discount information that could potentially alleviate scarcity.…”

Resource constraints lead to biased attention but decrease unethical behavior

“…Although participants who experienced acute financial scarcity behaved less unethically, they still displayed strong attentional bias towards the high-paying choice, while participants in affluence distributed attention more evenly on the screen (H2). This relationship aligns with prior evidence suggesting that experiences of scarcity can capture attention and direct focus towards choices that might aid in alleviating the experience of scarcity in the short term (Mani et al, 2013;Tomm & Zhao, 2016), although participants in this study ultimately do not act on this information. These results could suggest two things.…”

“…Only one prior study has investigated how scarcity-induced focus regulation is manifested in gaze behavior (Tomm & Zhao, 2016). This study found that experiences of scarcity increased people's attention towards price-relevant information, which led to less attention towards beneficial discount information that could potentially alleviate scarcity.…”