Building Better Programs

How poverty taxes the brain, by Emily Badger

In this online Atlantic Cities article, Emily Badger discusses Anandi Mani, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir, and Jiaying Zhao’s article “Poverty impedes cognitive function,” published in Science (2013).  Mullainathan et al’s work found that those living in poverty essentially suffer from a “bandwidth tax,” where the poor are mentally taxed by the stresses and circumstances related to poverty.  The work holds critical implications for policy and programs meant to improve low-income populations.

How poverty taxes the brain, by Emily Badger (Atlantic Cities article)

Additional commentary on this research:
Princeton University press release regarding the Science journal article