Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-r8qmj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-17T18:38:17.645Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Incentive hope” and the nature of impulsivity in low-socioeconomic-status individuals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2019

Francesca Walsh ,
Erik Cheries  and
Youngbin Kwak
Francesca Walsh
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences,University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003. fnwalsh@umass.eduecheries@umass.eduyoungbin@umass.eduhttp://kwaklab.com/
Erik Cheries
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences,University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003. fnwalsh@umass.eduecheries@umass.eduyoungbin@umass.eduhttp://kwaklab.com/
Youngbin Kwak
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences,University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003. fnwalsh@umass.eduecheries@umass.eduyoungbin@umass.eduhttp://kwaklab.com/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Low-income environments have been associated with greater levels of impulsive behavior, which contribute to the higher debt and obesity rates that further perpetuate current wealth and health disparities. In this commentary, we describe how this might be explained by an appeal to “incentive hope” and the motivational drive toward consumption triggered by the future uncertainty these groups face.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e55
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Appelt, K. C., Milch, K. F., Handgraaf, M. J. & Weber, E. U. (2011) The decision making individual differences inventory and guidelines for the study of individual differences in judgment and decision-making research. Judgment and Decision Making 6(3):252–262Google Scholar
Bair, J. (2005) Global capitalism and commodity chains: Looking back, going forward. Competition & Change 9(2):153–80.Google Scholar
Brandt, M. J., Wetherell, G. & Henry, P. J. (2015) Changes in income predict change in social trust: A longitudinal analysis. Political Psychology 36(6):761–68.Google Scholar
Brown, J. R., Ivković, Z. & Weisbenner, S. (2015) Empirical determinants of intertemporal choice. Journal of Financial Economics 116(3):473–86.Google Scholar
Burdick, J. D., Roy, A. L. & Raver, C. C. (2013) Evaluating the Iowa Gambling Task as a direct assessment of impulsivity with low-income children. Personality and Individual Differences 55(7):771–76.Google Scholar
Casswell, S., Pledger, M. & Hooper, R. (2003) Socioeconomic status and drinking patterns in young adults. Addiction 98(5):601–10.Google Scholar
Castillo, M., Ferraro, P. J., Jordan, J. L. & Petrie, R. (2011) The today and tomorrow of kids: Time preferences and educational outcomes of children. Journal of Public Economics 95(11–12):1377–85.Google Scholar
Cheon, B. K. & Hong, Y.-Y. (2017) Mere experience of low subjective socioeconomic status stimulates appetite and food intake. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114:72–77. Available at: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1607330114.Google Scholar
Courtemanche, C., Heutel, G. & McAlvanah, P. (2015) Impatience, incentives and obesity. The Economic Journal 125(582):1–31.Google Scholar
de Oliveira, A. C. M., Leonard, T. C. M., Shuval, K., Skinner, C. S., Eckel, C. & Murdoch, J.C. (2016) Economic preferences and obesity among a low-income African American community. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 131(Part B):196–208Google Scholar
Eckel, C., Johnson, C. & Montmarquette, C. (2013) Human capital investment by the poor: Informing policy with laboratory experiments. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 95:224–39.Google Scholar
Farah, M. J. & Hook, C. J. (2017) Trust and the poverty trap. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114(21): 5327–29. http://www.pnas.org/lookup/doi/10.1073/pnas.1704798114.Google Scholar
Haushofer, J. & Fehr, E. (2014) On the psychology of poverty. Science 344(6186):862–67.Google Scholar
Hershfield, H. E., Goldstein, D. G., Sharpe, W. F., Fox, J., Yeykelis, L., Carstensen, L. L. & Bailenson, J. N. (2011) Increasing saving behavior through age-progressed renderings of the future self. Journal of Marketing Research 48(SPL):S23–S37.Google Scholar
Hiscock, R., Bauld, L., Amos, A., Fidler, J. A. & Munafò, M. (2012) Socioeconomic status and smoking: A review. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1248(1):107–23.Google Scholar
Jachimowicz, J. M., Chafik, S., Munrat, S., Prabhu, J. C. & Weber, E. U. (2017) Community trust reduces myopic decisions of low-income individuals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114(21):5401–5406.Google Scholar
Kwak, Y., Walsh, F., Chen, X., Cheries, E. & Ya, W. (2017) Feelings about the future: The effects of perceived stability on decision making in students across US and China. Poster presented at the 5th Annual Flux Society Congress, September 16–18, 2017, Portland, OR.Google Scholar
Laibson, D. I., Repetto, A., Tobacman, J., Hall, R. E., Gale, W. G. & Akerlof, G. A. (1998) Self-control and saving for retirement. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1998(1):91–196.Google Scholar
Meier, S. & Sprenger, C. (2010) Present-biased preferences and credit card borrowing. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 2(1):193–210.Google Scholar
Meier, S. & Sprenger, C. D. (2013) Discounting financial literacy: Time preferences and participation in financial education programs. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 95:159–74.Google Scholar
Payne, B. K., Brown-Iannuzzi, J. L. & Hannay, J. W. (2017) Economic inequality increases risk taking. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114(18):4643–48.Google Scholar
Shafir, E., (2017) Decisions in poverty contexts. Current Opinion in Psychology 18:131–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.08.026.Google Scholar
Shah, A. K., Mullainathan, S. & Shafir, E. (2012) Some consequences of having too little. Science 338(6107):682–85.Google Scholar
Sirola, N. & Pitesa, M. (2017) Economic downturns undermine workplace helping by promoting a zero-sum construal of success. Academy of Management Journal 60(4):1339–59.Google Scholar
Weber, E. U., Johnson, E. J., Milch, K. F., Chang, H., Brodscholl, J. C. & Goldstein, D. G. (2007) Asymmetric discounting in intertemporal choice: A query-theory account. Psychological science 18(6):516–23.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, R. & Pickett, K. (2011) The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Yoon, S. & Kim, H. C. (2016) Keeping the American dream alive: The interactive effect of perceived economic mobility and materialism on impulsive spending. Journal of Marketing Research 53(5):759–72.Google Scholar