RT Generic
T1 How socioeconomic status shapes cognitive effort: A laboratory study among fifth graders
A1 Radl, Jonas
A1 Apascaritei, Paula
A1 Foley, William
A1 Kröger, Lea
A1 Lorente Labrado, Patricia
A1 Palacios Abad, Alberto
A1 Solga, Heike
A1 Stuhler, Jan
A1 Swarr, Madeline Lee
AB Effort 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.
YR 2024
FD 2024-03
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/43750
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/43750
LA eng
NO This 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).
DS e-Archivo
RD 1 sept. 2024