Lifelong Disadvantage: How Socioeconomics Affect Brain Function

Scope and Framing of the Study

• Many note the paper is explicitly correlational (“associated”), not causal; the HN submission title is seen as overstating “lifelong disadvantage.”
• Some argue the abstract’s phrasing subtly suggests causality (e.g., “higher income households showed preserved cognitive performance”), others dismiss this as nitpicking.

Causality, Direction, and Complexity

• One camp stresses that lower SES could impair brain function (via stress, adversity, nutrition, sleep, etc.).
• Another argues the reverse is also plausible: cognitive and brain differences can lead to lower SES.
• Several commenters emphasize likely bidirectional or circular causality and many unmeasured confounders.
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) studies are cited as evidence that early adversity (correlated with low SES) harms later cognition, pushing against a purely “brain → SES” story.

Methodological Critiques

• Complaints: cross-sectional, not longitudinal; relatively small sample; no direct intelligence measure; possible selection and recall bias.
• Authors’ adjustment for age, sex, education, cardiovascular risk, and mental health/substance disorders is noted; some doubt the reliability of self-reported substance use.

Genetics, Eugenics, and Class

• A heated tangent explores whether cognitive traits and SES differences are partly genetic.
• Historical “selective breeding” of elites is debated, as is how much of “good blood” was really about genetics versus institutional power.
• Strong pushback against eugenics and genetic determinism; others argue that fear of misuse should not shut down research on heritability.

Lived Experience of Poverty and Class

• Multiple firsthand accounts describe:
  • Constant cognitive load from financial precarity, unsafe neighborhoods, and environmental hazards.
  • Needing to “mask” working‑class background to fit into professional cultures; feeling punished when revealed.
  • Class-coded behaviors (hoarding free items vs minimalism) as subtle signals that affect inclusion and advancement.

“Poverty Mentality”, Agency, and Mobility

• Some describe a “poverty mentality” of risk aversion and short time horizons, shaped by a lack of safety net and distrust that promised future rewards will materialize.
• Others counter that poor people are often very good with money, and that poverty traps and structural barriers (housing, schooling, discrimination, welfare cliffs) matter more than mindset.
• Anecdotes highlight families who aggressively leveraged free educational opportunities to escape poverty, versus neighbors who did not; critics respond with mobility statistics and racial discrimination data suggesting individual effort is insufficient for most.

Environmental and Sleep Factors

• Noise, weak building codes in cheap housing, and resulting sleep deprivation are proposed as major, underappreciated SES-linked hits to cognition and productivity.

Meta-Discussion

• Some see the paper as too underpowered and confounded to change minds, serving mainly as fodder for preexisting beliefs.
• Others find value in the broader conversation it triggers about poverty, cognition, class culture, and policy.