Cognitive Bandwidth and Food Safety

This study investigates the cognitive barrier imposed by poverty on food safety investments among artisanal fishers in Nigeria, a critical yet neglected dimension of public health risk. Moving beyond conventional economic models, we apply Scarcity Theory to test the hypothesis that poverty imposes a cognitive tax that undermines the agency to act on safety knowledge. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, we surveyed 772 artisanal fishers across three coastal states, complemented by in-depth qualitative narratives. Key findings reveal a tiered behavioural response, anchored by a decisive cognitive liberation threshold at a monthly income of ₦80,000–₦100,000, where willingness-to-pay for safe food increases steeply. Below this threshold, mental bandwidth is monopolized by survival, rendering safety investment cognitively inaccessible. Counterintuitively, a high Cognitive Bandwidth Tax positively influenced WTP (Scaled OR=3.32), indicating that scarcity focuses attention on catastrophic, salient risks like family illness. Furthermore, the hierarchy of decision determinants shifts across income tiers: income acts as a foundational enabler, after which education and health risk beliefs become dominant drivers. We conclude that persistent food safety risks are not primarily a knowledge gap but a cognitive deficit induced by scarcity. Consequently, we recommend a fundamental policy pivot from knowledge-first to bandwidth-first strategies. For the majority below the liberation threshold, interventions must prioritize economic resilience through cash transfers and livelihood support to free cognitive space, before layering on behaviourally-designed safety education for those in transition.