Poverty and all the problems that accompany it can reduce a person’s cognitive abilities, leaving him with little brain power to devote to other areas of life, a new study conducted in India and US has found.
This mental strain could be costing poor people up to 13 IQ (intelligence quotient) points, researchers said. As a result, people of limited means are more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions that may be amplified by - and perpetuate - their financial woes, according to an International team of researchers.
The researchers suggest that being poor may keep a person from concentrating on the very avenues that would lead them out of poverty. A person’s cognitive function is diminished by the constant and all-consuming effort of coping with the immediate effects of having little money, such as scrounging to pay bills and cut costs, researchers said.