Financial scarcity impacts attention and thinking for pleasure.

People believe those experiencing scarcity engage in more pleasurable thinking.

Data shows that people experiencing scarcity actually do less pleasurable thinking.

Pleasurable thinking is a fantastic gymnasium for the human mind. It is the reason why daydreaming and letting your imagination run wild is fun. Thinking about positive upcoming experiences or alternative realities often leads to happiness and can serve as a mechanism to escape from the mundane. For instance, we think about what we will do during our next day off while working or imagine what it would be like to have dinner with our favorite celebrity.

Recently, a team of researchers set out to investigate who tends to engage in pleasurable thinking in terms of the financial resources people have at their disposal. On the one hand, the prediction that people who have less financial resources would engage in more pleasurable thinking makes perfect sense. Thinking happy thoughts is a zero-cost intervention which brings joy to the thinker. In a scene from the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, the hustling Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) struggles with home insecurity as he competes for a cut-throat job in finance. After being evicted from the motel where he and his son have been living, they are forced to spend the night in a public transit bathroom. To escape the harsh reality of their situation, he pretends that they are in a time machine and have traveled back to the dinosaur age. In order to be safe, they must hide out in the bathroom from the dinosaurs. In other words, they use pleasurable thinking as a form of escapism.

On the other hand, it could be the case that pleasurable thinking increases with wealth. Savoring upcoming dinner reservations, thinking back to past vacations, or simply having the freedom to not worry about how to make ends meet during the next billing cycle may afford the opportunity to engage in more pleasurable thinking.

In Study 1, intuitions were examined regarding the relationship between financial scarcity and pleasurable thinking. Participants imagined two people, one of which has many financial hardships. The other person has more than enough money to make ends meet. Participants were then asked which person is more likely to: (1) immerse themselves in fantasy for pleasure (2) entertain themselves with their imagination (3) use their imagination to make themselves happier1. The significant majority of participants thought that the person with financial hardship was more likely to engage in pleasurable thinking.

In Study 2, the team measured behavior from a first-person perspective rather than asking about hypothetical others. Perceived financial constraints, reported ability to direct attention, and reported ability to engage in pleasurable thinking were all measured firsthand from participants. Contrary to the results found in Study 1, Study 2 showed that people who experienced greater financial constraints are less likely to direct their attention or engage in pleasurable thinking.

The last two studies in the paper provide real-world correlational and causal data. Study 3 utilized a daily diary study over a 10-day period. Participants who perceived constant financial constraints were substantially less likely to be able to direct their attention or engage in pleasurable thinking throughout the 10 day period. Looking more granularly, participants experiencing particularly financially scarce days were less likely to be able to control their focus and think positively on those days.

The final study, conducted at a public museum in downtown Chicago, randomly assigned half of the participants to think about scarcity and difficulty paying bills (vs. a control). Then, participants were shown nature scenes on a device and asked to visualize themselves in this scene. They also collected participants’ perceived financial constraints. In line with prior studies, participants exposed to the financial scarcity scenarios showed lower ability to direct their attention and thoughts, hindering their ability to imagine themselves in the nature scenes they were shown. This was particularly true for those self-reporting high financial constraints in their lives.

Conclusion and Implications

Financial scarcity and perceived financial constraints are potent happiness killers. Scarcity decreases cognitive ability2, while financial constraints have been shown to decrease happiness from anything that you purchase3. Now we know scarcity robs directed attention and joy-inducing mental immersion, despite people predicting that pleasurable thinking would be higher for people with less resources (the happy poor).

At the policy level, the scarcity research suggests that poverty and financial constraint can be detrimental to mental ability and mental well-being. Thus, a discussion of tax structure, welfare programs, and social benefits becomes more informed in light of this research stream. For individuals, the ability to direct one’s attention is ultimately within your conscious control. Taking the time to slow down and savor the moment can help you take back control through activities like reading, meditation, spending time in nature, socializing, or exercise.

Wu, S. J., Cheek, N. N., & Shafir, E. (2025). Scarcity undermines directed attention and pleasurable thinking. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 191, 104449.

Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., & Zhao, J. (2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. Science, 341(6149), 976-980.

Dias, R. S., Sharma, E., & Fitzsimons, G. J. (2022). Spending and happiness: The role of perceived financial constraints. Journal of Consumer Research, 49(3), 373-388.

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