One’s personal identity can play an important role in decision-making. We propose that a key identity that shapes behavior among poor populations is conceptualizing oneself as financially insecure, which we term “poverty identity.” Two experiments suggest that this identity can influence one’s propensity to engage in challenging tasks. We first demonstrate in a lab experiment with students that making financial insecurity temporarily salient can reduce preference for challenging tasks. Subsequently, in a lab-in-field experiment conducted in Dharavi, a slum in Mumbai, India, we show that a verbal self-affirmation intervention involving simple, one-on-one conversations with each individual can counteract the effects of persistent identity salience for the poor by fostering greater preference for more challenging labor tasks. We suggest that the persistence of scarcity can make poverty a continually salient characteristic by which the truly impoverished define who they are. Further, we outline an identity-based theoretical framework that explains behavior among people who temporarily feel poor but also suggests that similar perturbations in identity salience may have a negligible impact on behavior among the very poor. These findings have important implications for models of identity and policy design aimed at improving well-being for disadvantaged populations.

一个人的身份可以在决策中发挥重要作用。我们建议，塑造贫困人口行为的关键身份是将自己概念上视为经济不安全，我们称之为“贫困身份”。两个实验表明，这种身份可能会影响一个人从事具有挑战性的任务的倾向。我们首先在一个与学生进行的实验室实验中证明，暂时使财务上的不安全感可以降低对挑战性任务的偏好。随后，在印度孟买贫民窟达拉维（Dharavi）进行的现场实验室实验中，我们表明，涉及与每个人进行简单的一对一对话的口头自我肯定干预措施可以抵消持续的身份显着性的影响。通过更倾向于更具挑战性的劳动任务来使穷人受益。我们认为，稀缺性的持续存在可以使贫困成为一个持续的显着特征，真正的贫困者可以通过贫困特征来确定他们是谁。此外，我们概述了一个基于身份的理论框架，该框架解释了暂时感到贫困的人们的行为，但同时也暗示了对身份显着性的类似扰动可能会对非常贫困的人们的行为产生微不足道的影响。这些发现对旨在改善弱势群体福祉的身份和政策设计模式具有重要意义。我们概述了一个基于身份的理论框架，该框架解释了暂时感到贫困的人们的行为，但同时也暗示了对身份显着性的类似扰动可能对非常贫困的人们的行为产生微不足道的影响。这些发现对旨在改善弱势群体福祉的身份和政策设计模式具有重要意义。我们概述了一个基于身份的理论框架，该框架解释了暂时感到贫困的人们的行为，但同时也暗示了对身份显着性的类似扰动可能对非常贫困的人们的行为产生微不足道的影响。这些发现对于旨在改善弱势群体的福祉的身份和政策设计模型具有重要意义。