Poverty and Cognition: A “Seductive Allure” of Psychological Explanations, and a Preference for Group over Individual Assistance.

Unlike past studies reporting greater credibility of neuroscience-based explanations and greater charitable giving for individual victims, we found that 1) psychologically-based explanations for poverty-related deficits were most convincing and induced greater endorsement for interventions, and 2) greater endorsement for poverty-related interventions to assist group victims.