Super Short Summary

Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir explores how lacking key resources impacts the mind, fostering a narrow focus on immediate needs and creating a cycle that exacerbates long-term well-being. Through research in economics, psychology, and decision science, the authors reveal how scarcity taxes cognitive bandwidth, leading to decisions that perpetuate deprivation, while offering solutions for policy and environmental design to mitigate these effects.