Title Does poverty promote a different and harmful way of thinking? The links between economic scarcity, concrete construal level and risk behaviors
Authors Caballero, Amparo , Fernandez, Itziar , AGUILAR BARRIGA, MARÍA DEL PILAR, Munoz, Dolores , Carrera, Pilar
External publication No
Means Curr Psychol
Scope Article
Nature Científica
JCR Quartile 2
SJR Quartile 2
JCR Impact 2.38700
SJR Impact 0.51300
Web https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85117119285&doi=10.1007%2fs12144-021-02382-3&partnerID=40&md5=a721ffa72178c055bcb722b3d16dfe19
Publication date 15/10/2021
ISI 000707513700001
Scopus Id 2-s2.0-85117119285
DOI 10.1007/s12144-021-02382-3
Abstract 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.
Keywords Economic scarcity; Construal level; Concrete mindset; Risk behaviors
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