Whether it is eating cake we would rather resist or saying things we do not mean to say, a tax on bandwidth makes it harder for us to control our impulses. And because scarcity taxes bandwidth, this suggests that scarcity not only can lower fluid intelligence but can also reduce self-control. Hence, the Australian student snaps at the Chinese experimenter, the executive consumed by the impending presentation snaps at her daughter, and the employee thinking about his unpaid bills snaps at a rude customer.
