When the Economy Falters, Do People Spend or Save? Responses to Resource Scarcity Depend on Childhood Environments
When the Economy Falters, Do People Spend or Save? Responses to Resource Scarcity Depend on Childhood Environments
复制标题
DOI：
10.1177/0956797612451471
复制
发表时间：
2013-02-01
影响因子：
8.2
通讯作者：
Tybur, Joshua M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Griskevicius, Vladas;Ackerman, Joshua M.;Tybur, Joshua M.
正如现代经济经历繁荣和萧条时期一样，人类祖先也经历了丰饶和饥荒的循环。当资源变得稀缺时，适应性反应是为未来储蓄还是花钱买眼前的收益？借鉴生活史理论，我们提出，人们对资源稀缺的反应取决于他们的早期生活环境的严酷性，反映了童年的社会经济地位（SES）。在这里报告的三个实验中，我们测试了来自不同童年环境的人如何应对资源稀缺。我们发现，在社会经济地位较低的环境中长大的人更冲动，承担更多风险，更快地接近诱惑。相反，在高社会地位环境中长大的人不那么冲动，承担的风险更少，接近诱惑的速度更慢。根据人们的氧化应激水平（一种累积压力暴露的尿液生物标志物），反应也有类似的差异。总体而言，尽管与早期生活环境相关的趋势在良性条件下处于休眠状态，但它们在经济不确定的条件下出现。
Just as modern economies undergo periods of boom and bust, human ancestors experienced cycles of abundance and famine. Is the adaptive response when resources become scarce to save for the future or to spend money on immediate gains? Drawing on life-history theory, we propose that people's responses to resource scarcity depend on the harshness of their early-life environment, as reflected by childhood socioeconomic status (SES). In the three experiments reported here, we tested how people from different childhood environments responded to resource scarcity. We found that people who grew up in lower-SES environments were more impulsive, took more risks, and approached temptations more quickly. Conversely, people who grew up in higher-SES environments were less impulsive, took fewer risks, and approached temptations more slowly. Responses similarly diverged according to people's oxidative-stress levels-a urinary biomarker of cumulative stress exposure. Overall, whereas tendencies associated with early-life environments were dormant in benign conditions, they emerged under conditions of economic uncertainty.