Today I’m blogging for #NationalReadingMonth with one of my favorite articles. This one works for personal finance, psychology, advisory, OR a science lesson on how to design an experiment.

Why Having Too Little Leads to Bad Decisions

What is it? This article comes from Psychology Today and describes a series of experiments that test whether having less (money, food, “tries”) impairs cognitive abilities and/or leads people to make bad decisions. You can probably guess that it does, but reading about the experiments is worth it.

Why is it cool? Aside from fitting in a variety of courses, this article exposes high school students to college-level academic writing (at least in summary). It merges content from various courses and explores human behavior, which high schoolers typically find fascinating.

Questions I Might Ask:

1. Before reading:
   • Recall a time you were stressed out and, as a result, made a bad decision. Describe what happened and why.
   • Or, for sports fans, what does it mean when a player “chokes?” Describe a time when you’ve seen it happen.
2. For synthesis:
   • Choose one of the experiments discussed in this article. Describe the rules for the experiment and the outcomes the researchers found.
   • Or, for science classes, choose one of the experiments and describe it in terms of the scientific method. Ex: What was the hypothesis? What was the control group?
   • What conclusions can be drawn from the experiments described?
   • If you met the psychologists in person, what questions would you ask them?

Where is it in the NGPF collection? This is resource 6 in “Financial Pitfall Basics” in our Financial Pitfalls unit.

About the Author

Jessica Endlich

When I started working at Next Gen Personal Finance, it's as though my undergraduate degree in finance, followed by ten years as an educator in an NYC public high school, suddenly all made sense.