The Best Ways to Reverse Scarcity Mindset, According to Researchers Who Study It
Scarcity fears, whether endemic or temporary, have a very real effect on our well-being
Worry about resources — most often, money and time — can weaken self-control and compromise decision-making, scientists agree. This “scarcity mindset” consumes precious attention, making it difficult to attend to anything but the thing we feel we lack. Often it’s triggered by external circumstances, like a legitimate fear of losing your job or not making rent. Or it can come from predicaments you have manufactured yourself, by taking on too much, or failing to plan wisely.
Anyone who has ever left for work midway through a fight with their partner, or spent the day worrying about a sick child, knows that even relatively small distractions can quickly drain your focus, says behavioral scientist Eldar Shafir, co-author of Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How it Defines Our Lives. “The brain has a very limited cognitive capacity,” he says. “If you ask a person to walk around remembering seven digits, their brain is basically full.”
This limited capacity means that scarcity fears, whether endemic or temporary, have a very real effect on our well-being. In 2013, Shafir and the economist Sendhil Mullainathan…
