Neuroscience technologies and minimization of administrative costs: An eye-tracking study of the effectiveness of its use in filling out tax forms

Research shows that eye-tracking can reveal which parts of documents attract the most attention and which are frequently overlooked. This method thus offers the public sector an opportunity to optimize form design, enhance efficiency, and reduce administrative burden. The integration of neuroscientific tools into public administration could significantly improve user-friendliness and process efficiency. The authors’ findings confirm that eye-tracking and pupillometry are effective instruments for quantifying administrative burden during the completion of tax forms. The experiment demonstrated the ability of these technologies to objectively capture differences in time, attention allocation, and mental workload across various sections of the form. Mechanical sections, such as the transcription of identification data, exhibited lower cognitive demands, yet still generated high pupillometric values. Pupillometric analysis identified two peaks in mental load upon entering the calculation section and during the actual tax liability computation.