A scarcity mindset alters neural processing underlying consumer decision making

Significance How poverty impacts decision making is a vitally important societal question. Recent influential theories proposed that altered decision making by the poor might be explained by a “scarcity” mindset. Here, we created an experimental manipulation which allowed us to investigate how consumer decisions and their neural processes are affected by scarcity, while circumventing potential confounds associated with comparing individuals with high and low income. Neuroimaging results suggest that a scarcity mindset affects neural mechanisms underlying goal-directed decision making, and that the effects of scarcity are largest when they are compared with previous situations when resources were abundant. The current findings contribute to a greater understanding of the mechanisms by which limited resources affect decision making.