Poverty affects the thinking ability of the brain

Poverty can undermine a person's intellectual capacity, which can even reduce IQ by 13 points. This is the result of a study by US scientists published on August 29 in the journal Science.

However, the above conclusion does not show that the poor are smarter than the rich, but point out the relationship between the financial situation and the thinking ability of the brain. Accordingly, thinking too much about the financial situation makes the poor unable to focus on other issues, can even make decisions that make the situation worse.

Illustration.(Source: bubblews.com)

The test was conducted at a shopping center in New Jersey (USA) with about 400 participants. Researchers have come up with a situation that assumes that a participant with a broken vehicle has to spend some money to fix it at a certain price. Participants must then complete a simple series of thinking exercises such as arranging shapes or clicking on the right side of a computer screen.

According to the analysis of the researchers, the results of the poorest exercise were among those with low incomes and were known to have a much higher repair amount than they expected. Meanwhile, the results for low-income people are not high and the equivalent of high income people. Thus, the financial pressure creates outstanding concerns that cause the brain to be drawn into solving that concern and cannot focus on other issues.

American researchers also conducted another test for 464 sugarcane farmers in India two times before and after the harvest. The results showed that participants completed the test better at the time of the harvest, when they had money to sell agricultural products.

From the above results, the researchers recommend that instead of focusing on thinking about very difficult problems like lack of money, one should choose to focus on solving the biggest concerns.