Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much

by Sendhil Mullainathan

At the same time, stress is unlikely to be the primary driver of many of the effects we have observed. Some of the most important effects had to do with scarcity taxing what we have come to call bandwidth. Stress, in contrast, does not have these predictable effects. Some studies find that stress heightens working memory. Still other studies have found mixed evidence, including some indication that executive control might improve during periods of stress. Of course, the chronic effects of stress are still different, but the effects of scarcity that we have studied are immediate: in the mall study, simply reminding people about their money had an almost instantaneous effect on their mental capacity. In addition, we have shown a particular pattern of improved performance (the focus dividend) and diminished performance (the bandwidth tax), a pattern that anxiety and stress alone cannot explain.