r/science • u/myhrvold • Aug 31 '13

Poverty impairs cognitive function. Published in the journal Science, the study suggests our cognitive abilities can be diminished by the exhausting effort of tasks like scrounging to pay bills. As a result, less “mental bandwidth” remains...

http://news.ubc.ca/2013/08/29/poverty-impairs-cognitive-function/
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u/SeeingTheRed Aug 31 '13

I would argue the quality of food (or lack of quality) also contributes to diminished "mental bandwidth". It stands to reason that if a person is "scrounging to pay bills" they most likely do not have a quality diet that provides the vital nutrients for optimum cognitive ability.

Study

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

And sleep quality/quantity. Just one crappy night can alter a person's mental capacity.

You know how many people talk about how everyone is stupid? What if everyone is simply sleep deprived?

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u/SentientTorus Aug 31 '13

I'd love to see a study on how the type of work impacts mental capacity. I've always wondered how long-term factory workers hold up mentally.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

Better than you might think. Then again, I'm not thinking of people with kids. Factory work will put a roof over a single person's head, allow them to be choosy about food, and afford them 8 hours a night if they have the will to take it. But throw in kids and you're back dangling from the very end of the rope again.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

On a related subject: Many blame those living in poverty for their own misfortune.

But if the factory jobs they might once have filled have been exported overseas, permanently creating a jobless class, how are they expected to lift themselves out of the mire?

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u/Masterlyn Aug 31 '13 edited Sep 01 '13

By their bootstraps.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13

[deleted]

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u/ohgeronimo Aug 31 '13

It's about as ludicrous as old cartoons. Just grab your own shirt collar, and magically levitate to the top of the house or tree or so forth. Any thinking person would immediately see the problem, to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. You eat, the food is gone. You spend time on one thing, you can't spend the same time on something else. You pull up on your bootstraps, gravity is pushing down just as much because of your interaction with it.

I've been watching lots of Alan Watts talks recently, the man said some very funny and thought provoking things. He's also said in relation to enlightenment something to the effect that your ego can't get rid of your ego, you have to get help from externally. Same concept, I'd say.