Attention please!
Attention please! — Econometrica, 89(4), 1717–1751 (2021)
Abstract
We study the impact of manipulating the attention of a decision-maker who learns sequentially about a number of items before making a choice. Under natural assumptions on the decision-maker’s strategy, directing attention toward one item increases its likelihood of being chosen regardless of its value. This result applies when the decision- maker can reject all items in favor of an outside option with known value; if no outside option is available, the direction of the effect of manipulation depends on the value of the item. A similar result applies to manipulation of choices in bandit problems.
Econometrica, 89(4), 1717–1751 (2021)
Citation
BibTeX citation:
@article{gossner2021,
author = {Gossner, Olivier and Steiner, Jakub and Stewart, Colin},
title = {Attention Please!},
journal = {Econometrica},
volume = {89},
number = {4},
pages = {1717-1751},
date = {2021},
url = {https://gossner.me/papers/attention-please.html},
langid = {en},
abstract = {We study the impact of manipulating the attention of a
decision-maker who learns sequentially about a number of items
before making a choice. Under natural assumptions on the
decision-maker’s strategy, directing attention toward one item
increases its likelihood of being chosen regardless of its value.
This result applies when the decision- maker can reject all items in
favor of an outside option with known value; if no outside option is
available, the direction of the effect of manipulation depends on
the value of the item. A similar result applies to manipulation of
choices in bandit problems.}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Gossner, Olivier, Jakub Steiner, and Colin Stewart. 2021.
“Attention Please!” Econometrica 89 (4): 1717–51.
https://gossner.me/papers/attention-please.html.