The poor aren’t less able, they’re distracted, says poverty expert Eldar Shafir. Privileged people subjected to the same conditions would also make bad decisions.
“When you’re poor you’re surrounded by bad decisions of people around you,” he says. “You’re so concerned about the present that you can’t begin thinking about the future, and that’s the big irony: People with the greatest need to think about the future don’t have the leisure or emotional capacity to do so. The very essence of poverty complicates decisions and makes immediate needs so urgent that you start making wrong choices. These mistakes aren’t any different from anyone else’s, but they occur more frequently due to the element of stress, and their implications are much greater.”