THE COGNITIVE INEQUALITY THEOREM: An Empirical Framework for Institutional Conditioning, Scarcity, and Unequal Cognitive Conditions

The Cognitive Inequality Theorem (CIT) formalizes how institutional conditioning, scarcity, and drift generate unequal cognitive conditions within democratic systems. It reframes cognition not as an individual trait but as a structural variable shaped by exposure to institutional and material constraints. The theorem introduces measurable constructs — adaptive and fixed cognitive tendencies — and defines the inequality threshold beyond which democratic agency becomes impaired. By integrating behavioral economics, institutional theory, and cognitive science, CIT establishes a unified empirical framework for analyzing how environments condition reasoning capacity and interpretive flexibility.