Concept · Cognitive Bias: Persuasion and influence biases
Scarcity bias
Origin: Cialdini, 1984
Biological Parallel
Squirrels hoard compulsively before winter—even when food is experimentally abundant. Scarcity cues (shortening days, temperature drops) trigger hoarding regardless of current availability. Evolution favored organisms that over-respond to scarcity signals: the cost of false alarm (wasted hoarding effort) is negligible compared to the cost of false security (starvation). Scarcity bias is a survival algorithm optimized for error asymmetry, not rational resource assessment.