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How socioeconomic status shapes cognitive effort: A laboratory study among fifth graders

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dc.affiliation.dptoUC3M. Departamento de Análisis Social
dc.contributor.authorRadl, Jonas
dc.contributor.authorApascaritei, Paula
dc.contributor.authorFoley, William
dc.contributor.authorKröger, Lea
dc.contributor.authorLorente Labrado, Patricia
dc.contributor.authorPalacios Abad, Alberto
dc.contributor.authorSolga, Heike
dc.contributor.authorStuhler, Jan Leonard
dc.contributor.authorSwarr, Madeline Lee
dc.contributor.funderEuropean Commission
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-08T10:37:18Z
dc.date.available2024-03-08T10:37:18Z
dc.date.issued2024-03
dc.description.abstractEffort is essential both to normative and sociological theories of stratification. But social scientific research has tended to treat effort as a missing variable or to measure it unreliably with self-reports. An emerging consensus in cognitive science identifies effort with executive function, i.e. the mental processes controlling conscious activity. Executive function can be measured using behavioral tasks, opening new avenues towards understanding the link between effort and stratification. However, while most large-N sociological studies lack behavioral measures of effort, most cognitive science studies rely on small convenience samples and omit the crucial role of incentives. We implemented a laboratory study with over 1,300 fifth-grade students. The experimental design features three "real-effort" tasks, each of which taps into different domains of executive function. Effort was elicited under three incentive conditions: (i) unincentivized (no reward); (ii) piece-rate (material reward); and (iii) tournament (material plus status reward). Overall, we find a positive association between parental socio-economic status and children's cognitive effort. However, the magnitude of this gap is surprisingly modest. Moreover, the effect of social origin on effort is largest in the unincentivized condition and shrinks when effort is extrinsically motivated. We discuss implications of how material scarcity shapes cognitive effort under different incentives.
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 758600).
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10016/43750
dc.identifier.uxxiDT/0000002112
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.projectID758600
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.accessRightsopen access
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.titleHow socioeconomic status shapes cognitive effort: A laboratory study among fifth graders
dc.typeworking paper
dc.type.hasVersionAO
dspace.entity.typePublication
relation.isAuthorOfPublicationd04c64e1-0112-49c1-a2e4-293b2ff412f1
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscoveryd04c64e1-0112-49c1-a2e4-293b2ff412f1
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