Good words to remember when things are falling apart...

We also link the evolution of maladaptive risk tolerance in deprived populations to payoff-biased learning, which can be selected-for due to the disproportionate cultural contribution of payoff-biased risk takers. While most of them fall to ruin, a very few lucky ones experience considerable gains.

Using this we study the value of learning strategies across development when risk matters. Generally speaking, as wealth buffers increase, risk of ruin decreases. This allows individuals to diversify their learning strategies, incorporating information from peers, elders, and individual experience.

We modeled a growth process where individuals choose the proportion of resources to invest in future growth as a response to acquired information on their risk of ruin. By observing and reacting to the ruin of peers, acquired pessimism can keep people afloat and be passed on to new generations.