In recent years, the psychological causes and consequences of poverty have received renewed attention from scientists and policymakers. In this essay, we summarize new developments in this literature. First, we discuss advances in our understanding of the relationship between income and psychological well-being. There is a robust positive relationship between the two, both within and across countries, and in correlational and causal analyses. Second, we summarize recent work on the impact of “scarcity” and stress on economic preferences and decision-making. Our view of this literature is that the evidence is relatively weak. Third, we summarize evidence on the impact of psychological interventions on economic outcomes. Light-touch psychological interventions, such as videos that aim to raise aspirations, have shown some promise in encouraging investment and improving economic well-being. Similarly, psychotherapy and pharmacological mental health treatments have positive effects on economic outcomes. Relative to the effects of cash transfers, these impacts are small in absolute terms and large in per-dollar terms. We conclude by discussing whether a psychological poverty trap is plausible.

中文翻译：

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贫困心理学：我们站在哪里？

近年来，贫困的心理原因和后果重新受到科学家和政策制定者的关注。在本文中，我们总结了该文献的新发展。首先，我们讨论我们对收入与心理健康之间关系的理解的进展。无论是在国家内部还是国家之间，以及在相关性和因果分析中，两者之间都存在着牢固的正相关关系。其次，我们总结了最近关于“稀缺”和压力对经济偏好和决策的影响的研究。我们对这篇文献的看法是，证据相对较弱。第三，我们总结了心理干预对经济结果影响的证据。轻微的心理干预措施，例如旨在提高愿望的视频，在鼓励投资和改善经济福祉方面显示出了一些希望。同样，心理治疗和药物心理健康治疗对经济结果也有积极影响。相对于现金转移的影响，这些影响在绝对值上很小，但在每美元上却很大。最后，我们讨论心理贫困陷阱是否合理。