"But the challenge of making good decisions gets even worse when we are stressed. A very informative study on this topic was carried out in India. In that study, researchers looked at farmers, who harvest sugar cane. Sugar cane is a seasonal crop, and these farmers generally have low and unsteady incomes. They make their money during harvest season, when they can sell the sugar cane. But, six weeks before the harvest, they are invariably broke. In this particular study, the researchers administered an IQ test to a sample of farmers six weeks before their harvest, and then again just after the harvest... the findings of that study suggest that the farmers had about one-third lower IQ scores when they were under financial distress before the harvest, compared to after the harvest.
The term for this phenomenon is called 'scarcity mindset'."
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An interesting article about how stressful situations decrease the ability to make rational decisions. I think we all knew this a bit already, but it's good to see it validated. I think that stress arises when we hit a "complexity ceiling": when the situation and data that impinges on us is too much to understand. DI addresses this stress directly. by providing a structured way to work through decisions in complex environments through formal processes that walk you through the decision in a structured way that helps you focus on the outcomes you want, see your available actions, and understand how your actions lead to your outcomes.