April 9, 2026

Have you ever been stressed that you are not doing enough financially? Have you ever faced scary experiences, like losing your job, or struggled to make ends meet?

Did you experience your parents worry about paying bills? Perhaps the adults faced financial struggles, then focused much of their attention on meeting those and less on other things. These are tough challenges to face. This could be one of the reasons that impacts long term decisions.

As defined by the Cleveland Clinic, “a scarcity mindset refers to a way of thinking that emphasizes limitations and lack, often manifesting as a preoccupation with insufficient resources such as money, time, or emotional support. This mindset can lead individuals to feel that they are always in a state of deprivation, which can hinder their ability to think clearly and make effective decisions. 

Dr. Balaji Niwlikar wrote, “the scarcity mindset is the pervasive belief that resources—money, time, opportunities—are always insufficient (Mullainathan & Shafir, 2013). It is not merely an economic condition.  It is a psychological one.”

A scarcity mindset can arise from various factors that can instill this mindset that can persist into adulthood. Here are a few factors:

• life events:  job loss or financial struggles can trigger a focus on what is lacking in life.
• cultural influences:  societal pressures and comparisons can perpetuate feelings of inadequacy and competition.
• childhood experiences:  growing up in an environment where resources and money were limited.

 “When we are operating from a scarcity mindset,” Dr. Robyne Haley-Dafoe wrote, “ we see the world through a lens of ‘not enough.’ Scarcity thinking is rooted in fear, and keeps us focused on what we lack.”

Scarcity does not just altar mood – it restructures cognition, wrote Niwlikar. In one study, researchers used functional neuroimaging. The images showed that when people experience scarcity, activity in the prefrontal cortex decreased. The prefrontal cortex governs planning and self-control. This region of the brain is tied to immediate reward heighten in response. This can cause a phenomenon called tunneling. Tunneling can be helpful in survival situations, but can come at a cost.

Individuals with a scarcity mindset often experience heightened levels of stress and anxiety. According to one study, people who grew up with low socioeconomic resources were more likely to be impulsive.

If a scarcity mindset triggered certain behaviors in your parents, those patterns may have been passed onto you, noted Allison Torres Burtka, adding that a scarcity mindset is not something that you do on purpose.  It’s background noise your brain makes when you cannot get what you want.

Scarcity also carries a heavy cognitive load, wrote Niwlikar. Much of the mental effort is consume by persistent worry. Scarcity hijacks mental bandwidth, leaving fewer resources for rational thought. It also amplifies the present bias where if you experience scarcity, you might prioritize immediate rewards or benefits over the future. People may focus on necessities rather than pleasure, even when their basic needs are already met.

This mindset can show up in different ways, here are some signs you may have a scarcity mindset:

• You tend to see the glass half-empty, not half-full. You may see the slice of the pie missing instead of the other slices that are left.
• You may forget to pay bills or neglect other responsibilities.
• You have difficulty planning or prioritizing long term goals.
• If a co-worker gets a promotion, or a friend wins an award, you may feel annoyed or jealous.
• You are reluctant to take risks.
• It maybe hard to trust people. You may be afraid of losing relationships.
• You tend to over schedule yourself, that leaves you feeling like you’re behind.

According to Burtka, this mindset is way of thinking that focuses on something you don’t have enough of, often it is money or time, but it also could be emotional support. This way of thinking uses up your mental bandwidth, the capacity of your brain to deal with other things.

Here are some ways that a scarcity mindset affects you:

• It can lower your IQ levels by as many as 14 points. In an experiment, researchers found that people who were preoccupied with a scarcity mindset, scored 13 to 14 points lower on an IQ test than those who did not have a scarcity mindset.
• It impacts decision-making, problem solving, retaining information, and to reason logically.
• It affects cognitive performance. When your brain focuses on what is lacks, it leaves less bandwidth for other tasks.
• It reduces your ability to emphasize. When you obsess over one thing, it’s hard to pay attention to what else is going on around you. One study found that those with a scarcity mindset was limited to emphasize with someone else’s pain.
• It may prevent you from growing. You may ignore the long term, missing opportunities. You may fear losing what you have, so avoid healthy risks that might lead to success.
• It can reduce your confidence in yourself, lead you to doubt that you could have success.

Remember, scarcity is not your destiny. You can use strategies to weaken its grip. You can take small steps from scarcity mindset to the concept of sufficiency.  Hanley-Dafoe introduced me to Lynne Twist’s sufficiency mindset. A sufficiency mindset is rooted in the belief that there is enough to go around. It relies heavily into trusting and appreciating what we can do and what we already have.

• Be aware and label any scarcity thoughts. Challenge and reframe scarcity based thoughts.
• Practice gratitude. It is a powerful way to redirect your attention to what is in your life already.
• Engage mindfully with media. Curate your media by unfollowing and limiting exposure to accounts that evoke comparison.
• Surround yourself with positive influences. Spend time with people that will encourage, uplift and inspire you.
• Celebrate success of others. Think ‘why  not you as well?’
• Set micro goals.
• Set some ground rule to help you make decisions.
• Allow yourself a small portion for joyful spending.

In a buffet of life, there can be a table full of possibilities.

“For me, the opposite of scarcity is not abundance. It’s enough. I’m enough.” — Brené Brown

Resources:

Image by pch.vector on Freepik retrieved on 4/9/2026 retrieved from https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/depressed-sad-man-thinking-financial-problems_8270994.htm

The Cleveland Clinic. “Scarcity Mindset: Causes and How to Overcome It.” Retrieved on 4/6/2026 from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/scarcity-mindset

Burtka, Allison Torres “What is a Scarcity Mindset?” 10/2/2024. Retrieved on 4/6/2026 from https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-scarcity-mentality

Griskevicius, Vladas, Joshua M. Ackerman, and Joshua M. Tybury. “When the Economy Falters, Do People Spend or Save? Responses to Resources to Scarcity Depend on Childhood Environments. Retrieved on 4/6/2026 from https://journals.sagepub.com/action/downloadCitation

Hanley-Dafoe, Ed.D, Robyne. “6 Ways to Shift Out of a Scarcity Mindset: Shifting from feelings of lack to feelings of Engough.” 9/15/2024. Retrieved on 4/9/2026 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/everyday-resilience/202411/6-ways-to-shift-out-of-a-scarcity-mindset?msockid=3d8690ebcfc164601c1187fcce6e6549

Hanley-Dafoe, Robyne. Stress wisely: How to be well in an unwell world.©2023

Niwlikar, Balaji. “The Scarcity Mindset’s Sneaky Influence and 5 Important Ways to Break From it.” 9/15/2025. Retrieved on 3/17/2026 from Niwlikar, B. A. (2025, September 15). The Scarcity Mindset’s Sneaky Influence and 5 Important Ways to Break From It. PsychUniverse. https://psychuniverse.com/scarcity-mindset/