Scarcity

Economist Sendhil Mullainathan and psychologist Eldar Shafir argue that having less than one needs, whether of time or of money, creates a distinct psychology. Scarcity captures the mind, they say, causing tunneling, a narrow focus on the urgent shortfall at the expense of all else, though it can also yield a focus dividend. It also taxes bandwidth, the mental capacity behind fluid intelligence and executive control. The authors use this lens to explain why dieters struggle with temptation, why busy executives mismanage time and why the same sugarcane farmers think more clearly once the harvest is in, and examine how scarcity creates and sustains poverty. It began as an invitation to write one chapter on the lives of low-income Americans.

Daniel Kahneman endorsed it, calling the authors stars in their own disciplines whose joint work blends heart and head better than anything else he had seen in the field.