Stories by Sendhil Mullainathan

A preoccupation with scarcity diminishes IQ and self-control. Simple measures can help us counteract this cognitive tax

In Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, a Harvard economist and a Princeton psychologist show that scarcity causes us to focus on the thing that is in short supply. Sometimes this focus has harmful effects; other times it is beneficial. Here, they demonstrate the good side