poverty saps people's brainpower and may lower IQ by 13 points

[astr0144]

Poverty saps the brain: US-India study


From a shopping mall in New Jersey to the farm fields of India, experiments show that poverty saps people's brainpower and may lower IQ by 13 points, scientists said Thursday.

The findings in the US journal Science suggest that being poor can drain a person's mental resources, leaving him or her less capable of focusing on other things, like solving problems and controlling impulses.

"Because you have all these other things on your mind, you have less mind to give to everything else," said co-author Sendhil Mullainathan, a Harvard University economist.

Rather than blaming poverty on the individual or the environment, the study suggests that the state of being poor exerts the same effect as losing a full night's sleep or having lower intelligence.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/poverty-saps-brain-us-india-study-203215314.html#8ZOyZnd

[zorgon]

If you are broke... you don't eat right... if you don't eat right you have stress... if you have stress you  don't sleep right... without proper sleep your brain turns to MUSH.

Simple as that  No scientific study needed

[Amaterasu]

They've been saying Our collective IQ is dropping...

Wonder if there's a causal relationship...  Hmmmmmm....

[zorgon]

They've been saying Our collective IQ is dropping...
Wonder if there's a causal relationship...  Hmmmmmm....

No that is caused by i-Phones, video games and chat rooms

[ArMaP]

If you are broke... you don't eat right... if you don't eat right you have stress... if you have stress you  don't sleep right... without proper sleep your brain turns to MUSH.

Simple as that  No scientific study needed

If you don't eat right your brain doesn't work as well as it should, the brain needs mostly two things: oxygen and sugar.

[Amaterasu]

No that is caused by i-Phones, video games and chat rooms

Now, z, You have to admit that the poverty in this country (USA) is rising about in pace w/that drop in IQ.

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

I disagree 100%

When you are hungry, your brain goes into overdrive to come up with a (preferably food related) solution.

I tend to keep myself hungry for just that reason, that & i simply have no time to eat or perform other bodily functions, except hot showers which i do twice a day because i sweat & burn calories a lot, & it's also my meditation time.

Where do all the worlds best scam artists come from?

Poor countries

[sky otter]

Quote from: Amaterasu on Today at 07:25:14 AM
They've been saying Our collective IQ is dropping...
Wonder if there's a causal relationship...  Hmmmmmm....


No that is caused by i-Phones, video games and chat rooms



get a kid outside without those and they will blossom..some take longer than others
but dang their little brains just can't stop

[ArMaP]

I disagree 100%

I disagree with your disagreement.

When you are hungry, your brain goes into overdrive to come up with a (preferably food related) solution.

In my case, since I was finishing high-school, I noticed that eating before a test (or, more generically, before needing to use the brain at full power) gave me better results.

That's how I, at the third attempt, got a positive result in the Mathematics exam.

[rdunk]

Well, to begin with , "poverty" is a word of applied relevance, with no real defnitive meaning. And the brain is one of the least understood organs of the body. And poverty vs brainpower, even if considered to be symbiotic, would be much like the "chicken vs the egg" scenario.

On the basis of the subject poverty assumptions, then should we also assume/suppose that wealth leads to "genius"? 

Brains, and brain connections are not all made the same, and IQ levels are very varied naturally. Achievement and degree of wealth are circumstantial evidence which simply portends input from a host of individual factors, including but not limited to IQ, family incentive-for-learning environment, level and direction of education, work incentive, etc, etc, etc,.........................................................etc. I would expect that if any zapping of brain power is actually going on, with such as poverty, it is most likely that such zapping would be just a prevalent with a whole host of other life experiences that also "tax the brain cells"! 

[zorgon]

The EGG came first  because it would have to mutate in the embrio to create a Chicken

And if a tree falls in the forest and there are no ears to hear it, its doesn't make a sound

[rdunk]

The EGG came first  because it would have to mutate in the embrio to create a Chicken

Well "do tell" Oh great and mighty Knight of the Pegasus Forest! Pray tell, please, from whence did come the EGG??   

[astr0144]

I had been thinking that maybe things like GMO foods & vaccines may be responsible for IQ reduction  assuming that the article refers to modern day... This is often what Alex Jones & his team often indicates.

But I am not sure that GMOs or poisoned type foods apply in all various countries...

Or if things are different from poverty from previous generations as it has always been around at least on and off even in more richer 1st world countries where has it has been indicated that it may still be seen as being relevant...  where the poor in the western world is still far better off than other countries like parts of Africa and India..

[zorgon]

Well "do tell" Oh great and mighty Knight of the Pegasus Forest! Pray tell, please, from whence did come the EGG?? 

Simple. The egg came from some other bird that wasn't a chicken

Same way an ELEPHANT came from a MASTADON

But I guess MASTADONS have to be figments of the imagination too in your version of realyty because they cannot possibly be millions of years old

Speaking of which I here there is a Mastadon pit in a wash near Vegas that isn't protected yet  I could use a couple of those tusks

[zorgon]

If you don't eat right your brain doesn't work as well as it should, the brain needs mostly two things: oxygen and sugar.

hence the expression...

LET THEM EAT CAKE

...was a POSITIVE suggestion at the time