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Attention Please!

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier Gossner
  • Jakub Steiner
  • Colin Stewart

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier Gossner & Jakub Steiner & Colin Stewart, 2021. "Attention Please!," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(4), pages 1717-1751, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:emetrp:v:89:y:2021:i:4:p:1717-1751
    DOI: 10.3982/ECTA17173
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    2. Perroni, Carlo & Scharf, Kimberley & Talavera, Oleksandr & Vi, Linh, 2021. "Online Salience and Charitable Giving: Evidence from SMS Donations," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 536, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    3. Annie Liang & Xiaosheng Mu & Vasilis Syrgkanis, 2019. "Dynamically Aggregating Diverse Information," Papers 1910.07015, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2021.
    4. Stephanie M. Smith & Ian Krajbich & Ryan Webb, 2019. "Estimating the dynamic role of attention via random utility," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 5(1), pages 97-111, August.

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    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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