According to the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, over the past ten years, property inequality has sharply decreased in Russia and, in connection with this, the attitude towards poverty has changed. If earlier in the domestic culture poverty was perceived as a virtue, today more than half of Russians do not feel sympathy for people with low incomes, believing that they themselves have created problems for themselves. Whether the financial situation really depends on the character of the person or the innate personality traits.
Poverty is inherited
In 1967, the American psychologist Martin Seligman suggested that poverty can be inherited, since the success and failure of an adult is highly dependent on the experience of childhood. He cited the results of an experiment in which dogs that had been exposed to mild but sensitive electric shocks for a long time did not leave the cage, even if the door was left open. Animals that did not experience the effects of electricity or learned to turn it off by pressing their nose on a special panel, at the first opportunity, fled from the dangerous enclosure. The scientist called this the phenomenon of acquired helplessness and argued that people also have it, so the children of poor parents often cannot boast of high incomes themselves. Half a century later, his assumptions were confirmed by Canadian physiologists. Having studied the data of 103 subjects aged 25 to 40 years, the researchers found that the level of well-being in the first five years of life can determine the future fate of a person. The fact is that those who grew up in poor families had a lot of the stress hormone cortisol in their bodies, which is involved in the formation of protective reactions in response to external threats. Normally, a sharp increase in the content of this hormone mobilizes the body's resources to save lives when it is necessary to run away from pursuers or fight the enemy. However, if a high concentration of cortisol is maintained constantly, the person becomes more cautious. Therefore, the poor are less risk averse than their rich peers.that those who grew up in poor families had a lot of the stress hormone cortisol in their bodies, which is involved in the formation of protective reactions in response to external threats. Normally, a sharp increase in the content of this hormone mobilizes the body's resources to save lives when it is necessary to escape from pursuers or fight the enemy. However, if a high concentration of cortisol is maintained constantly, the person becomes more cautious. Therefore, the poor are less risk averse than their rich peers.that those who grew up in poor families had a lot of the stress hormone cortisol in their bodies, which is involved in the formation of protective reactions in response to external threats. Normally, a sharp increase in the content of this hormone mobilizes the body's resources to save lives when it is necessary to run away from pursuers or fight the enemy. However, if a high concentration of cortisol is maintained constantly, the person becomes more cautious. Therefore, the poor are less risk averse than their rich peers.the person becomes more careful. Therefore, the poor are less risk averse than their rich peers.the person becomes more careful. Therefore, the poor are less risk averse than their rich peers.
Dynamics of Russians' attitudes towards the poor, 2003–2013 Source: Mareeva S. V., Tikhonova N. E. Poverty and social inequalities in Russia in the public consciousness.
In addition, according to a study by neurogeneticists from Duke University (USA), people from poor families have altered the expression of the SLC6A4 gene, which is responsible for the distribution of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. This, in turn, increases the activity of the amygdala, which is involved in responding to stressful situations. Scientists have found that the special activity of this area of the brain is associated with the risk of developing depression and a number of other mental disorders.
The rich are smarter, the poor are kinder
People from wealthy families also have minor changes in the structure of the brain. As studies by neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University have shown, wealthy children have thicker cortex in the parietal and temporal zones, which are responsible for visual perception and are involved in thinking processes, as well as long-term memory. Both factors are directly correlated with high academic performance and parental income. What's more, scientists have calculated that differences in brain structure begin at more than 44 percent of household income gaps. This is confirmed by numerous studies showing that the academic performance of schoolchildren and students from poor families is, on average, lower than that of those from the middle class and the offspring of wealthy parents. It is believedthat such differences in brain anatomy are mainly related to environmental factors. It has been shown in animals that the environment that promotes the intellectual development and training of the young influences the development of the brain. On the other hand, children from wealthy families have a less developed parasympathetic nervous system, the high activity of which indicates a tendency towards altruism and self-sacrifice. In an experiment by American psychologists, four-year-old kids who received 20 coins from scientists were asked to share them with sick peers. Children from families with low socioeconomic status were more willing to donate money to those in need, and at all stages of the experiment, they had an increased level of parasympathetic nervous system tone. The children of wealthy parents preferred not to share with anyone - the higher the family income,the less coins they gave to peers in need.
Dynamics of Russians' perceptions about the causes of poverty among people from the immediate environment, 2003–2015 Source: Mareeva S. V., Tikhonova N. E. Poverty and social inequalities in Russia in the public consciousness.
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Poverty and life expectancy
Influences the level of income and life expectancy. In the United States, wealthy men live on average about 15 years longer, and women almost a decade. The situation is similar in England, where the average life expectancy of rich men and women is 83.6 and 86.7 years, respectively, and of poor people - 74 and 78.8 years. And this gap will only widen, the international team of scientists is sure. In the United States, over the past 14 years, life expectancy has increased by 2.34 years for men and 2.91 years for women, representing the richest five percent of the country. For the poorest five percent of Americans, these figures are only 0.32 and 0.4 years.
In most of these studies, life expectancy correlates with poor nutrition and a person's attitude towards their own health. For example, British researchers found that the poor are more likely to die of the rich from lung cancer, coronary heart disease and respiratory infections. Mortality rates for these reasons in poor and wealthy areas of England differ by 2.5-3.3 times. At the same time, both people with high incomes and those who live below the poverty line die equally from breast, prostate and blood cancers.
Alfiya Enikeeva