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The Economics of Attention

George Loewenstein | Carnegie Mellon University

November 6, 2025 | 17:00 - 18:30 | Hörsaal 1 | SoWi

Abstract

In this talk, I will argue that attention deserves recognition alongside land, labor and capital as a primary factor of production in economics. I will begin by outlining the distinctive features of human attention makes it especially consequential for economic analysis, and by introducing the concept of attention-based utility. This concept highlights that an individual's well-being at any given moment depends not only on objective circumstances but also on what they attend to - be it their environment, internal states, or memories. I will then present evidence from a field study and three controlled experiments showing how investor feelings and decisions are systematically shaped by attention-based utility.

Bio

Prof. Loewenstein is the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a co-director of the Center for Behavioral Decision Research at CMU, and the Director of Behavioral Economics at the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his PhD from Yale University in 1985 and since then has held academic positions at institutions around the globe.

His research focuses on applications of psychology to economics, and specific interests include decision making over time, bargaining and negotiations, psychology and health, law and economics, the psychology of adaptation, the role of emotion in decision making, the psychology of curiosity, conflict of interest, various aspects of sex, unethical behavior, and, most relevant to the current talk, different dimensions of the economics of information.

He helped to found the field of behavioral economics, the field of neuroeconomics, and was one of the early proponents of a new approach to public policy called, variously, ‘asymmetric’ or ‘libertarian’ paternalism. He has published over 200 journal articles in journals in economics, psychology, law, medicine and other fields, numerous book chapters, has written or edited 6 books on topics ranging from intertemporal choice to behavioral economics and emotions, and has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals in different fields. He received numerous grants and awards, from government agencies such as the NIH, NSF, USDA, and from foundations, such as the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and many others.

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