So put plainly, hire people who come from low income families because they appreciate rewards more, and stay hungry for longer.
How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
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Re: How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
#12So put plainly, hire people who come from low income families because they appreciate rewards more, and stay hungry for longer.
Are you saying it'd be good to take it further... e.g. increase taxes so we have more hungry, appreciative people. Would we have better companies and economy if this was applied to corporate officers?
Re: How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
#13So put plainly, hire people who come from low income families because they appreciate rewards more, and stay hungry for longer.
Article states the opposite - people from low income families react to rewards less than those from higher income families.
Re: How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
#14These findings may be somewhat particular to just money. One pernicious part of growing up poor is that the moment a child gets a bit of money it is taken away. Parents might seize the money to help the family, or other friends and relatives might guilt them into a "loan". It would be interesting to see if the experiment is reproducible with other rewards that are more durable or harder to take away from the subjects.
Re: How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
#15> The findings suggest that lower SES circumstances may prompt the brain to adapt to the environment by dampening its response to rewards, which are often scarcer in low SES environments.
or alternatively, many mundane things are suddenly consequential things and rewarding? and this game lacked stimulation because it was inconsequential?
Re: How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
#16This is counter to how I would have guessed, which makes it quite interesting!
To those complaining that the results are non-determinative (e.g. “they didn’t disentangle genetics from social issues”) that’s how science works: do some studies, make or evaluate a hypothesis, then you or others iterate on different dimensions, possibly untangling some variables or even refuting the results of such a study. It’s OK to be where it is at this stage.
Of course it’s hard to incorporate that ambiguity into a regular article, especially when you are writing for the university’s publicity office, which is what “MIT News” is.
Re: How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
#17I wonder how this changes with spirituality background - e.g. with Buddhism, stoicism and so on.
I think it changes significantly, since being spiritual is an effective way to rework and improve the inclinations that previous experiences have impressed upon a person. Although this study being focused on the reward response in 12-14 year olds is not going to be an assessment of that since the typical 12-14 year old doesn't even have a coherent comprehension of the basics of their spiritual text yet...
My curiosity is from the expectation that various spiritual backgrounds (e.g. parents talking to their children about things) could allow the children to pay less importance on "worldly matters" and more on "being happy with what we have".
Re: How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
#18[deleted]
Re: How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
#19This is counter to how I would have guessed, which makes it quite interesting! To those complaining that the results are non-determinative (e.g. “they didn’t disentangle genetics from social issues”) that’s how science works: do some studies, make or evaluate a hypothesis, then you or others iterate on different dimensions, possibly untangling some variables or even refuting the results of such a study. It’s OK to be…
Also, “they didn’t disentangle genetics from social issues” is a bit aside from the point: someone born into a lower SES family faces an additional challenge to achieving and maintaining success, be that learned or born. Childhood circumstances can have lifelong effects in the same way that genetics can.
Now, combine that with all of the other things we do know are SES (nutrition, access to resources like tutors, lifestyle & residential stability, etc, which seem quite difficult to ascribe to genetics)…
Re: How the brain responds to reward is linked to socioeconomic background
#20did they control for nutritional availability during growth & development?