A Ramadan Induced Scarcity Mindset

Abstract

Every year, during the month of Ramadan, people of Muslim faith fast by not eating or drinking between sunrise and sunset. This is likely to have physiological and psychological consequences for the individuals who fast, as well as societal and economic impacts on the wider population. Here, we investigate whether this type of fasting influences fasters’ cognition through a scarcity mindset. In Study 1, we find that during Ramadan but not after, preceding questions about food undermine fasting subjects’ accuracy and reaction times on a subsequent cognitive control task. Study 2 shows that food-related probes impair cognitive control in the fasters who had a meal within the past eight hours. Beyond eight hours, control and food-reminded subjects both perform poorly. Implications for research on cognition under scarcity are discussed.