City Research Online

Abstract

In recent years, scholars from different fields have studied the effects of scarcity on social behaviour, producing mixed findings. This review synthesizes the most recent literature on the topic and proposes a framework to organize the evidence. According to this framework, scarcity produces an attentional shift towards the scarce resource and a cognitive load that triggers heuristic thinking; this affects social behaviour in various ways, depending on individual and contextual factors, which can be transient (e.g., emotional states or social expectations), or enduring (e.g., personality or social environment). We then apply this framework to explain when and how scarcity influences parochialism. We conclude with a caution against the uncritical use of scarcity salience as a tool for social behavioural change.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher Keywords:	scarcity mindset; prosociality; parochialism; social expectations; behavioural change
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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