A scarcity mindset alters neural processing underlying consumer decision making
Open accessAbstract
Significance: How poverty impacts decision making is a vitally important societal question. Recent influential theories proposed that altered decision making by the poor might be explained by a “scarcity” mindset. Here, we created an experimental manipulation which allowed us to investigate how consumer decisions and their neural processes are affected by scarcity, while circumventing potential confounds associated with comparing individuals with high and low income. Neuroimaging results suggest that a scarcity mindset affects neural mechanisms underlying goal-directed decision making, and that the effects of scarcity are largest when they are compared with previous situations when resources were abundant. The current findings contribute to a greater understanding of the mechanisms by which limited resources affect decision making.
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Huijsmans et al. (2019) found that a scarcity mindset is associated with increased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex and decreased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
“In an initial study, Huijsmans et al. (2019) found that a scarcity mindset is associated with increased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (which encodes valuation processes) and decreased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (which is known for its involvement in the executive functions).”
From Poverty and economic decision making: a review of scarcity theory (2022) · cites this paper as Huijsmans et al. (2019)
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Poverty and economic decision making: a review of scarcity theory
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- Authors
- Huijsmans, I., Ma, I., Micheli, L., Civai, C., Stallen, M., & Sanfey, A. G.
- Affiliations
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- New York University (US)
- Center for Neuroeconomics, Maastricht University, 6211 LM, Maastricht, The Netherlands;
- London South Bank University (GB)
- Leiden University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Huijsmans, Inge
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2019-05-23
- Volume
- 116
- Issue
- 24
- Pages
- 11699-11704
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC6575633
- OpenAlex
- W2944823928
- Cited by
- 103
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 7.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Research Open (London South Bank University) (acceptedVersion)
- Research Open (London South Bank University) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- scarcity mindset, abundance mindset, purchase decision, willingness to pay, orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, food choice, attentional bias
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Brain Mapping, Choice Behavior, Decision Making, Goals, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Motivation, Prefrontal Cortex, Young Adult
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