Planned vs. Actual Attention

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Avoyan, Ala; Ribeiro, Mauricio; Schotter, Andrew; Schotter, Elizabeth R.; Vaziri, Mehrdad; Zou, Minghao
• 署名单位: Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington; University of Bristol; New York University; State University System of Florida; University of South Florida; State University System of Florida; University of South Florida; Princeton University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.4834
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: planned attention; Attention allocation; time and choice; Eye tracking

摘要

People often need to plan how to allocate their attention across different tasks. In this paper, we run two experiments to study a stylized version of this attention-allocation problem between strategic tasks. More specifically, we present subjects with pairs of 2 x 2 games, and for each pair, we give them 10 seconds to decide how they would split a fixed time budget between the two games. Then, subjects play both games without time constraints, and we use eye-tracking to estimate the fraction of time they spend on each game. We find that subjects' planned and actual attention allocation differ and identify the determinants of this mismatch. Further, we argue that misallocations can be relevant in games in which a player's strategy choice is sensitive to the time taken to reach a decision.