The Effect Of Childhood Poverty Experience On Effort-Related Decision-Making

Since China achieved total poverty alleviation,the Party’s important work has turned to "consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation with high quality".As the direct beneficiary of rural revitalization,farmers should exert their own positive behaviors and enhance their positive psychological qualities to the realization of rural revitalization.Obviously,hard work is not only a necessary condition for an individual to achieve self-achievement,but this quality is also a very key factor for an individual to get out of their own poverty.Few studies have examined how individuals’ later efforts are influenced by their experiences of childhood poverty.Based on the life course theory,this study explores how effort-based decision making is affected by childhood poverty experience,and also explores how different areas of effort are affected by childhood poverty experience.In addition,it also explores the internal mechanism of effort-based decision making(optimization tendency).This paper is helpful to provide theoretical basis for the growth and development of early disadvantaged groups.Study 1 examined the influence of childhood poverty experience on effort-based decision making by comparing the behavioral differences between the childhood poverty group and the childhood non-poverty group in general tasks that did not clearly distinguish some effort component.The results showed that different groups of subjects had statistical significance in search frequency and search duration,that is,the poor childhood group showed less effort in effort tasks than the non-poor childhood group.In Study 2,the effort situation was divided into cognitive effort-based tasks and physical effort-based tasks,and the effort performance of the childhood poverty group and the childhood non-poverty group in different areas of effort was compared to examine whether the childhood poverty experience had domain differences on effort-based decision-making.The results show that: in the cognitive field,the effort discount rate of the childhood poor is significantly higher than that of the childhood non-poor,which indicates that the childhood poor are more inclined to make no effort;In the physical field,there was no significant difference in effort decision.In study 3,subjects were asked to complete the optimization tendency scale and then to complete the cognitive effort discount task,so as to explore the internal mechanism of childhood poverty experience on cognitive effort-based decision-making behavior.The results show that the mediation effect of optimization tendency is significant,that is,the poor in childhood are more inclined to satisfiability.In the process of task,they realize no effort in cognitive effort task due to the finiteness of cognitive resources in accordance with the principle of satisfiability.However,non-poor childhood individuals are more inclined to the optimization strategy.They strive to find the best choice even though they spend a lot of energy,so they are willing to make greater efforts to obtain greater rewards.Conclusions:(1)For general tasks that do not clearly distinguish an effort component,childhood poverty experience has a negative impact on individuals’ effort-based decision-making.That is,faced with the same incentive drive,individuals with childhood poverty are less willing to work hard than those without childhood poverty.(2)The influence of childhood poverty experience on effort-based decision making is domain specific.In the area of cognitive effort,individuals with childhood poverty were less willing to exert effort than those without childhood poverty.However,in the field of physical effort,there was no statistically significant difference between childhood poverty and non-poverty.(3)The difference in decision-making style is the mediating factor that childhood poverty experience affects individual effort decision-making.The poor in childhood are more inclined to adopt the satisfied-oriented strategy.In the process of performing cognitive tasks,due to the limitation of cognitive resources,they follow the principle that satisfaction is the end,so they show no effort in cognitive efforts.