ANT010 Cultural Anthropology Extra Credit
How Scarcity and Poverty Create Tunnel Vision
Answer the following questions in response to the Hidden Brain podcast on the “Scarcity Trap. The
podcast can be found at http://www.npr.org/2017/03/20/520587241/the-scarcity-trap-why-we-keep-
digging-when-were-stuck-in-a-hole. (The start-stop button is next to the title.)
Questions:
1. In the Minnesota Starvation Study, how did food scarcity affect the study participants’ minds? In
what way are the people who are poor like people who are starving?
The food scarcity affected the participants’ minds by telling them to focus on food. People who
are poor tend to focus on getting money the same way people who are starving focus on getting
food.
2. The podcast argues that poverty creates certain ways of thinking, including “tunnel vision.”
From an evolutionary perspective, how might this tunnel vision be advantageous? In what ways
is it not advantageous?
Tunnel vision can be an advantage by making people focus on one goal but the disadvantage of
this is that people who have tunnel vision may stop caring about how the goal is getting done.
3. Given the new knowledge about the psychological effects of scarcity, what sort of policy
responses to poverty do researchers recommend?
The researchers think we should respond to them the same way we respond to mistakes made
by airline pilots.
4. The podcast talks about many types of scarcity –money, food, or time. What kind of scarcity
have you experienced? How did that experience affect (even briefly) you’re thinking and/or
actions?
I have experienced money scarcity, which made me want to get a job and work for money.
How Scarcity and Poverty Create Tunnel Vision
Answer the following questions in response to the Hidden Brain podcast on the “Scarcity Trap. The
podcast can be found at http://www.npr.org/2017/03/20/520587241/the-scarcity-trap-why-we-keep-
digging-when-were-stuck-in-a-hole. (The start-stop button is next to the title.)
Questions:
1. In the Minnesota Starvation Study, how did food scarcity affect the study participants’ minds? In
what way are the people who are poor like people who are starving?
The food scarcity affected the participants’ minds by telling them to focus on food. People who
are poor tend to focus on getting money the same way people who are starving focus on getting
food.
2. The podcast argues that poverty creates certain ways of thinking, including “tunnel vision.”
From an evolutionary perspective, how might this tunnel vision be advantageous? In what ways
is it not advantageous?
Tunnel vision can be an advantage by making people focus on one goal but the disadvantage of
this is that people who have tunnel vision may stop caring about how the goal is getting done.
3. Given the new knowledge about the psychological effects of scarcity, what sort of policy
responses to poverty do researchers recommend?
The researchers think we should respond to them the same way we respond to mistakes made
by airline pilots.
4. The podcast talks about many types of scarcity –money, food, or time. What kind of scarcity
have you experienced? How did that experience affect (even briefly) you’re thinking and/or
actions?
I have experienced money scarcity, which made me want to get a job and work for money.
