Self-Exclusion in the Attention Economy: Identity-Driven Withdrawal from Status and Leadership Roles

In the platform-based attention economy, visibility increasingly functions as a form of economic and symbolic capital. Yet individuals experiencing poverty often disengage from attention-seeking and status-enhancing behaviors, even when such actions could offer tangible benefits. This paper explores this paradox through the concept of poverty identity—a psychological construct shaped by chronic scarcity, stigma, and negative self-perception. Drawing on theories of scarcity, self-verification, and identity economics, we hypothesize that poverty identity fosters attentional avoidance, status aversion, and reluctance to assume responsibility. To test this, we conducted a laboratory experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to one of three priming conditions: poverty salience, psychological sufficiency ("enoughness"), or a neutral control. We measured behavioral proxies for attention-seeking (social media activity) and status engagement (willingness to assume leadership roles). Results show that participants primed with poverty identity were significantly less likely to post on social media or accept leadership roles, even after controlling for internal shame, time preference, and risk aversion. In contrast, those primed with sufficiency demonstrated greater social engagement and willingness to lead. These effects were particularly pronounced among male participants, suggesting gendered dynamics in the internalization of poverty. Our findings suggest that poverty identity operates as a latent psychological mechanism that perpetuates exclusion by dampening strategic visibility and social agency. We argue for the integration of psychological constraints into economic models of behavior and inclusion.