{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T19:53:54Z","timestamp":1792785234562,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"National Academy of Sciences","issue":"46","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,13]],"date-time":"2025-11-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1762992000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/igo\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100004421","name":"World Bank Group","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["TF0A2522 TF0B2819 TF019115"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TF0A2522 TF0B2819 TF019115"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100004421","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Anonymous","award":["NA"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NA"]}]},{"name":"Niger Prime Minister\u2019s Office","award":["P166602"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P166602"]}]},{"name":"Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship","award":["NA"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NA"]}]},{"name":"P.E.O. Scholar Award","award":["NA"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NA"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100023923","name":"Stanford King Center on Global Development","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["NA"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NA"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100023923","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.pnas.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,18]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Poverty is characterized by multidimensional economic, social, and psychological constraints that undermine people\u2019s agency to pursue new opportunities and shape their life outcomes. How can interventions best support the agency of low-income individuals and, in so doing, boost poverty-reduction efforts? We theorize and find that agency interventions are effective when designed to be \u201cculturally wise,\u201d i.e., attuned to the model of agency predominant in a cultural context. Focusing on low-income women in rural Niger, Study 1 finds that local mental models of economic success primarily reflect interdependence, grounded in relational factors like advancing social harmony, respectfulness, and collective benefits. As evidenced by data from a United States sample, this contrasts with a more independent model common in the West grounded in personal factors like self-initiative. Study 2 finds empirical support for relational factors (e.g., subjective social standing) in addition to self-oriented personal factors (e.g., self-efficacy) as mechanisms of women\u2019s economic advancement in a highly effective multifaceted poverty reduction program. Study 3 reports a field experiment with program participants (n = 2,628) to compare a Western-derived\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">personal agency<\/jats:italic>\n                    intervention and a culturally wise\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">relational agency<\/jats:italic>\n                    intervention each to a control. Only\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">relational agency<\/jats:italic>\n                    caused significant improvements in economic outcomes over 12 mo, as well as in some personal and relational outcomes. By contrast,\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">personal agency<\/jats:italic>\n                    showed limited effects, shifting only personal outcomes. These findings reveal the promise of research at the intersection of social and cultural psychology, behavioral science, and development economics to help address global poverty.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2505694122","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,13]],"date-time":"2025-11-13T18:52:58Z","timestamp":1763059978000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["How culturally wise psychological interventions can help reduce poverty"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"122","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8349-1543","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Catherine C.","family":"Thomas","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Michigan","place":["Ann Arbor"]},{"name":"Organizational Studies, University of Michigan","place":["Ann Arbor"]},{"name":"Department of Psychology, Stanford University","place":["Palo Alto"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7447-5995","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Patrick","family":"Premand","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Development Impact, Development Economics, World Bank","place":["Washington"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Bossuroy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Social Protection and Labor, World Bank","place":["Washington"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Soumaila Abdoulaye","family":"Sambo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Groupe de Recherche, d\u2019Etudes et d\u2019Action pour le D\u00e9veloppement","place":["Niamey, Niger"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1390-4389","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hazel Rose","family":"Markus","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Stanford SPARQ","place":["Stanford"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6194-0472","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gregory M.","family":"Walton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Stanford University","place":["Palo Alto"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"341","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_4_1_2","first-page":"27","article-title":"Thematic analysis of some selected Hausa proverbs","volume":"27","author":"Abdulkarim Z.","year":"2015","unstructured":"Z. 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