Scarcity Brain: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough

by Michael Easter

Fall hoarding is a relaxed endeavor if it’s been a good summer for nuts and seeds. It’s like going to the Mall of America with friends and a fat wad of cash. The squirrels gather, saying hi to their squirrel neighbors as they do. They place all their nuts and seeds in a burrow and let it be as they casually add more to it. But the situation changes if it’s been a bad summer for nuts and seeds. Scarcity makes the scene apocalyptic. The squirrels become defensive and paranoid. They think their neighbor squirrels are trying to steal their stuff. They’ll fight with other squirrels over scarce nuts and seeds. And then, once they’ve amassed a large enough hoard, they’ll prepare for more conflict. They’ll stand like a bouncer at the entrance to their burrow, ready to defend the hoard. I spoke with Stephanie Preston. She’s a psychologist at the University of Michigan who has spent her career studying how animals and humans relate to their possessions. She told me that when facing a disaster that makes necessities scarce, we humans effectively become squirrels. “A good example is the pandemic,” Preston told me. The pandemic was like a very bad summer. At its onset, people panicked. Our first response was to hoard. Brawls broke out in aisles as people clamored for toilet paper, canned food, hand sanitizer, and more. And then, once we had the resources to weather the pandemic winter, we continued our squirrel-like behavior. “This is when we saw a trend of people worrying about gettin...