Attention economy

{{Short description|Economic view of human attention as a commodity}}

{{multiple issues|

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The attention economy refers to the incentives of advertising-driven companies, in particular, to maximize the time and attention their users give to their product.{{Cite news |last=Burkeman |first=Oliver |date=2019-11-22 |title='The attention economy is in hyperdrive': how tech shaped the 2010s |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/22/attention-economy-in-hyperdrive-how-tech-shaped-2010s-oliver-burkeman |access-date=2024-07-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news |date=February 9, 2017 |title=The battle for consumers' attention |url=https://www.economist.com/special-report/2017/02/09/the-battle-for-consumers-attention |access-date=2024-07-15 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}}

Attention economics is an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems.

Description

According to Matthew Crawford, "Attention is a resource—a person has only so much of it."{{cite book|first1=Matthew B.|last1=Crawford|author-link1=Matthew Crawford|title=The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction|date=March 31, 2015|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=978-0374292980|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldbeyondyourh00craw/page/11 11]|edition=1st|type=hardcover|chapter=Introduction, Attention as a Cultural Problem|quote=In the main currents of psychological research, attention is a resource—a person has only so much of it.|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/worldbeyondyourh00craw/page/11}} Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck{{cite book |last1=Davenport |first1=Thomas |last2=Beck |first2=John |title=The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business |date=2001 |publisher=MA: Harvard Business School Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9781578518715 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j6z-MiUKgosC |access-date=29 October 2020}} add to that definition:

Attention is focused mental engagement on a particular item of information. Items come into our awareness, we attend to a particular item, and then we decide whether to act.{{sfn|Davenport|Beck|2001|p=20}}

A strong trigger of this effect is that it limits the mental capability of humans and the receptiveness of information is also limited. Attention allows information to be filtered such that the most important information can be extracted from the environment while irrelevant details can be left out.{{cite journal |last1=Kiyonaga |first1=Anastasia |last2=Egner |first2=Tobias |title=Working memory as internal attention: Toward an integrative account of internal and external selection processes |journal=Psychonomic Bulletin & Review |date=12 December 2012 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=228–242 |doi=10.3758/s13423-012-0359-y |pmid=23233157 |pmc=3594067 |url=}}

Software applications either explicitly or implicitly take attention economy into consideration in their user interface design based on the realization that if it takes the user too long to locate something, they will find it through another application. This is done, for instance, by creating filters to make sure viewers are presented with information that is most relevant, of interest, and personalized based on past web search history.{{cite book |last1=Shekhar |first1=Shashi |last2=Agrawal |first2=Rohit |last3=Karm V. |first3=Arya |title=2010 International Conference on Advances in Computer Engineering |chapter=An Architectural Framework of a Crawler for Retrieving Highly Relevant Web Documents by Filtering Replicated Web Collections |date=2010 |pages=29–33 |doi=10.1109/ACE.2010.64 |isbn=978-1-4244-7154-6 |s2cid=9388907 |chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5532879/authors |access-date=29 October 2020}}

The economic value of time can be quantified and compared to monetary expenditures. Erik Brynjolfsson, Seon Tae Kim and Joo Hee Oh show that this makes it possible to formally analyze the attention economy and putting values on free goods.{{Cite journal |last1=Brynjolfsson |first1=Erik |last2=Kim |first2=Seon Tae |last3=Oh |first3=Joo Hee |date=2023-08-31 |title=The Attention Economy: Measuring the Value of Free Goods on the Internet |url=https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/isre.2021.0153 |journal=Information Systems Research |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=978–991 |language=en |doi=10.1287/isre.2021.0153 |issn=1047-7047}}

Theory

Research from a wide range of disciplines including psychology,{{cite journal |last1=Le |first1=Thanh P |last2=Najolia |first2=Gina M |last3=Minor |first3=Kyle S |last4=Cohen |first4=Alex S |title=The effect of limited cognitive resources on communication disturbances in serious mental illness |journal=Psychiatry Research |date=2016 |volume=248 |issue=248 |pages=98–104 |doi=10.1016/j.psychres.2016.12.025 |pmid=28038440 |pmc=5378554 |url=}} cognitive science,{{cite journal |last1=Franconeri |first1=Steven L |last2=Alvarez |first2=George A |last3=Cavanagh |first3=Patrick |title=Flexible cognitive resources: competitive content maps for attention and memory |journal=Trends in Cognitive Sciences |date=2013 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=134–141 |doi=10.1016/j.tics.2013.01.010 |pmid=23428935 |pmc=5047276 |url=}} neuroscience,{{cite journal |last1=Desimone |first1=R |last2=Duncan |first2=J |title=Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention |journal=Annual Review of Neuroscience |date=1995 |volume=18 |pages=193–222 |doi=10.1146/annurev.ne.18.030195.001205 |pmid=7605061 |s2cid=14290580 |url=https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ne.18.030195.001205 |access-date=30 October 2020}} and economics,{{cite journal |last1=Christie |first1=S |last2=Schrater |first2=Paul |title=Cognitive cost as dynamic allocation of energetic resources |journal=Frontiers in Neuroscience |date=2015 |volume=9 |issue=9 |pages=289 |doi=10.3389/fnins.2015.00289 |pmid=26379482 |pmc=4547044 |s2cid=15545774 |url=|doi-access=free }} suggest that humans have limited cognitive resources that can be used at any given time, when resources are allocated to one task, the resources available for other tasks will be limited. Given that attention is a cognitive process that involves the selective concentration of resources on a given item of information, to the exclusion of other perceivable information, attention can be considered in terms of limited processing resources.{{cite journal |last1=Barrouillet |first1=Pierre |last2=Bernardin |first2=Sophie |last3=Portrat |first3=Sophie |last4=Vergauwe |first4=Evie |last5=Camos |first5=Vale ́rie |title=Time and Cognitive Load in Working Memory |journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition |date=2007 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=570–585 |doi=10.1037/0278-7393.33.3.570 |pmid=17470006 |s2cid=2575997 |url=https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.33.3.570}}

=History=

The concept of attention economics was first theorized by psychologist and economist Herbert A. Simon{{cite book |last1=Simon |first1=Herbert A |title=Designing Organizations for an Information-rich World |date=1971 |publisher=Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press |pages=37–52 |url=https://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=33748 |access-date=28 October 2020 |archive-date=6 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006235931/https://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=33748 |url-status=dead }} when he wrote about the scarcity of attention in an information-rich world in 1971:

[I]n an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.{{sfn|Simon|1971|pp=40–41}}

He noted that many designers of information systems incorrectly represented their design problem as information scarcity rather than attention scarcity, and as a result, they built systems that excelled at providing more and more information to people, when what was really needed were systems that excelled at filtering out unimportant or irrelevant information.{{sfn|Simon|1971}}

Simon's characterization of the problem of information overload as an economic one has become increasingly popular in analyzing information consumption since the mid-1990s, when writers such as Thomas H. Davenport and Michael Goldhaber{{cite journal |last1=Goldhaber |first1=Michael H |title=The attention economy and the Net. |journal=First Monday |date=1997 |volume=2 |issue=4 |doi=10.5210/fm.v2i4.519 |doi-access= free}} adopted terms like "attention economy" and "economics of attention".{{cite journal |last1=van Krieken |first1=Robert |title=Georg Franck's 'The Economy of Attention': Mental capitalism and the struggle for attention |journal=Journal of Sociology |date=2019 |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=3–7 |doi=10.1177/1440783318812111 |doi-access= }}

Some writers have speculated that transactions based on attention will replace financial transactions as the focus of economic system. For example, Goldhaber wrote in 1997: "...transactions in which money is involved may be growing in total number, but the total number of global attention transactions is growing even faster."{{cite magazine|last=Goldhaber|first=Michael H.|title=Attention Shoppers!|url=https://www.wired.com/1997/12/es-attention/|magazine=Wired|date=December 1997|volume=5|issue=12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980207145438/http://www.wired.com/wired/5.12/es_attention.html|archive-date=7 February 1998|access-date=5 July 2024|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}} For a 1999 essay, Georg Franck argued "income in attention ranks above financial success" for advertising-based media like magazines and television.{{cite journal|last=Franck|first=Georg|title=The economy of attention|journal=Journal of Sociology|volume=55|issue=1|year=2018|doi=10.1177/1440783318811778|doi-access=free|pages=8–19}}

Information systems researchers have also adopted the idea, and are beginning to investigate mechanism designs which build on the idea of creating property rights in attention (see Applications).

In 2022, Rice University professor Adrian Lenardic and two co-authors wrote for BigThink that attention economics adversely affected scientific research: "The attention a scientist’s work gains from the public now plays into its perceived value. Scientists list media exposure counts on résumés, and many PhD theses now include the number of times a candidate’s work has appeared in the popular science press. Science has succumbed to the attention economy."{{cite web |last=Lenardic |first=Adrian |last2=Seales |first2=Johnny |last3=Covington |first3=Anthony |date=30 September 2022 |title=The credibility of science is damaged when universities brag about themselves |url=https://bigthink.com/the-present/attention-economy-science-damaged/ |access-date=18 March 2025 |publisher=BigThink}} They add that study results are publicized without proper peer input or reproducibility.

Negative externalities

{{See also|Social media addiction|Political polarization|Surveillance capitalism}}

In economic theory, market exchanges may have unintended consequences, called externalities, that aren't reflected in the price consumers pay upfront. When these consequences have a negative effect on an uninvolved third party, they're called negative externalities, with pollution being a common example.{{cite web |last1=Kenton |first1=Will |title=Externality: What It Means in Economics, With Positive and Negative Examples |url=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/externality.asp |access-date=11 December 2024 |website=Investopedia}} The attention economy generates negative externalities for society that impact both individuals and communities.{{cite web |title=New Economics For Sustainable Development: Attention Economy |url=https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/attention_economy_feb.pdf |access-date=10 December 2024 |website=United Nations |publisher=United Nations Economist Network}}

= Social media addiction and mental health impacts =

One negative externality of the attention economy is social media addiction. Given the monetization of human attention, social media platforms are designed to maximize user engagement, namely by influencing the brain's reward system. When users receive positive feedback on social media or view novel content, their brain releases dopamine, leading them to stay on the platform for extended periods of time and come back to it repeatedly. Social media addiction has been linked to negative mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.{{cite journal |last1=Bhargava |first1=Vikram R. |last2=Velasquez |first2=Manuel |date=6 October 2020 |title=Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction |journal=Business Ethics Quarterly |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=321–359 |doi=10.1017/beq.2020.32|doi-access=free }}

The Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma illustrates how algorithms from search engines and social media platforms negatively affect users while maximizing online engagement.{{Cite web |date=2020-09-18 |title=Why The Social Dilemma is the most important documentary of our times |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/social-dilemma-netflix-film-media-facebook-twitter-algorithm-addiction-conspiracy-b454736.html |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=The Independent |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2020-11-10 |title=In social media's battle for our attention, real connection becomes the casualty |url=https://www.rappler.com/technology/features/social-media-attention-battle-connection-love-tristan-harris/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=RAPPLER |language=en-US}}

= Amplification of disinformation =

During the 2010s, social media in conjunction with online advertising technologies inspired significant growth in the business model of the attention economy.{{Cite news |last=Burkeman |first=Oliver |date=2019-11-22 |title='The attention economy is in hyperdrive': how tech shaped the 2010s |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/22/attention-economy-in-hyperdrive-how-tech-shaped-2010s-oliver-burkeman |access-date=2024-07-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite journal |last=Diaz Ruiz |first=Carlos A. |title=Disinformation and fake news as externalities of digital advertising: a close reading of sociotechnical imaginaries in programmatic advertising |journal=Journal of Marketing Management |date=2024 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1080/0267257X.2024.2421860 |issn=0267-257X |doi-access=free}} A study conducted by researchers at Hanken School of Economics found that when the attention economy is paired with online advertising, the resulting financial arrangement can lead to the circulation of fake news and the amplification of disinformation for profit.

= Surveillance capitalism and ethical considerations =

Another negative externality of the attention economy is the rise of surveillance capitalism, which describes the practice of companies collecting personal data to buy and sell for profit.

To capture user attention, companies collect data — such as demographics and behavioral patterns — and use it to create personalized user experiences that align with their interests based on the obtained data. Companies also sell this data to third parties, often without the user's informed consent.{{cite web |title=New Economics For Sustainable Development: Attention Economy |url=https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/attention_economy_feb.pdf |access-date=10 December 2024 |website=United Nations |publisher=United Nations Economist Network}} These practices raise ethical concerns about privacy, misuse of data, and misrepresentation of communities.{{cite journal |last1=Cinnamon |first1=Jonathan |date=5 December 2017 |title=Social Injustice in Surveillance Capitalism |journal=Surveillance & Society |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=609–625 |doi=10.24908/ss.v15i5.6433|hdl=10871/30595 |hdl-access=free }}

Attention for marginalized communities

Within the attention economy, engagement metrics influence the visibility of content and narratives. Algorithms in the attention economy are designed to maximize engagement, often prioritizing content that resonates with dominant cultural identities. As a result, marginalized groups may face challenges in having representation of their perspectives and concerns. For example, Black creators on platforms such as TikTok have reported that their content had significant reductions in engagement after posting about the Black Lives Matter Movement, suggesting that they were shadow banned.{{Cite magazine |last=McCluskey |first=Megan |date=2020-07-22 |title=These Creators Say They're Still Being Suppressed for Posting Black Lives Matter Content on TikTok |url=https://time.com/5863350/tiktok-black-creators/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |magazine=TIME |language=en}} Furthermore, limiting the visibility of marginalized creators reduces the amount of attention they receive. This, in turn, hinders their ability to engage in activism and spread awareness about issues affecting their community to the broader public. {{Cite journal |last=Tufekci |first=Zeynep |date=2013-07-01 |title="Not This One": Social Movements, the Attention Economy, and Microcelebrity Networked Activism |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002764213479369 |journal=American Behavioral Scientist |language=en |volume=57 |issue=7 |pages=848–870 |doi=10.1177/0002764213479369 |issn=0002-7642}}{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Leonie |last2=Archer |first2=Alfred |date=2020-11-01 |title=Epistemic Injustice and the Attention Economy |journal=Ethical Theory and Moral Practice |language=en |volume=23 |issue=5 |pages=777–795 |doi=10.1007/s10677-020-10123-x |issn=1572-8447|doi-access=free }}

Intangibles

According to digital culture expert Kevin Kelly, by 2008, the attention economy was increasingly one where the consumer product costs virtually nothing to reproduce and the problem facing the supplier of the product lies in adding valuable intangibles that cannot be reproduced at any cost. He identifies these intangibles as:{{cite web | url = http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/kelly08/kelly08_index.html | website = The Edge | title = BETTER THAN FREE | first = Kevin | last = Kelly | date = February 5, 2008 }}

Immediacy - priority access, immediate delivery
Personalization - tailored just for you
Interpretation - support and guidance
Authenticity - how can you be sure it is the real thing?
Accessibility - wherever, whenever
Embodiment - books, live music
Patronage - "paying simply because it feels good"
Findability - "When there are millions of books, millions of songs, millions of films, millions of applications, millions of everything requesting our attention—and most of it free—being found is valuable."

Social attention, collective attention

Attention economics is also relevant to the social sphere. Specifically, long-term attention can be considered according to the attention that people dedicate to managing their interactions with others. Dedicating too much attention to these interactions can lead to "social interaction overload",{{cite journal |last1=Maier |first1=Christian |last2=Laumer |first2=Sven |last3=Weinert |first3=Christoph |title=The Negative Side Of ICT-Enabled Communication: The Case Of Social Interaction Overload In Online Social Networks |journal=ECIS 2013 Completed Research |date=2013 |volume=86 |pages=1–10 |url=https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1309&context=ecis2013_cr |access-date=30 October 2020}} i.e. when people are overwhelmed in managing their relationships with others, for instance in the context of social network services in which people are the subject of a high level of social solicitations. Digital media and the internet facilitate participation in this economy by creating new channels for distributing attention. Ordinary people are now empowered to reach a wide audience by publishing their own content and commenting on the content of others.{{cite book | last1 = Jones | first1 = Rodney H. | last2 = Hafner | first2 = Christoph A. | date = 2012 | title = Understanding Digital Literacies | page = 90 | publisher = Routledge | location = New York | isbn = 9780415673167 }}

Social attention can also be associated to collective attention, i.e. how "attention to novel items propagates and eventually fades among large populations".{{cite journal |last1=Wu |first1=Fang |last2=Huberman |first2=Bernardo |title=Novelty and collective attention |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=2007 |volume=104 |issue=45 |pages=17599–17601 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0704916104 |pmid=17962416 |pmc=2077036 |arxiv=0704.1158 |bibcode=2007PNAS..10417599W |doi-access=free }}

Applications

=In advertising=

File:Nissan Caravan sound truck of JCP in Okazaki, Aichi 20090520.jpgs, like this one in Japan, involuntarily occupy the attention of those who hear them, an example of attention theft.]]

"Attention economics" treats a potential consumer's attention as a resource.{{cite book|editor1-last=Pedrycz|editor1-first=Witold|editor2-last=Chen|editor2-first=Shyi-Ming|title=Social Networks: A Framework of Computational Intelligence|date=9 December 2013|isbn=978-3-319-02993-1|page=229|publisher=Springer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JxS6BQAAQBAJ&q=Attention+economics&pg=PA229|access-date=1 June 2015}} Traditional media advertisers followed a model that suggested consumers went through a linear process they called AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action).{{cite journal |last1=Ullal |first1=Mithun |last2=Hawaldar |first2=Iqbal T |title=Influence of advertisement on customers based on AIDA model |journal=Problems and Perspectives in Management |date=2018 |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=285–298 |doi=10.21511/ppm.16(4).2018.24 |doi-access=free }} Attention is therefore a major and the first stage in the process of converting non-consumers. Since the cost to transmit advertising to consumers has become sufficiently low given that more ads can be transmitted to a consumer (e.g. via online advertising) than the consumer can process, the consumer's attention becomes the scarce resource to be allocated. As such, a superfluidity of information may hinder an individual's decision-making who keeps searching and comparing products as long as it promises to provide more than it is using up.{{cite book|last1=Dolgin|first1=Alexander|title=The Economics of Symbolic Exchange|date=2008|isbn=978-3-540-79883-5|pages=164–165|publisher=Springer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NqpA7Lq7QKcC&q=Attention+economics&pg=PA164|access-date=1 June 2015}}

Advertisers that produce attention-grabbing content that is presented to unconsenting consumers without compensation have been criticized for perpetrating attention theft.{{cite magazine |last1=Wu |first1=Tim |authorlink=Tim Wu |title=The Crisis of Attention Theft—Ads That Steal Your Time for Nothing in Return |url=https://www.wired.com/2017/04/forcing-ads-captive-audience-attention-theft-crime/ |access-date=9 August 2021 |magazine=Wired |date=April 14, 2017}}{{cite news |last1=McFedries |first1=Paul |title=Stop, Attention Thief! |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/stop-attention-thief |access-date=9 August 2021 |work=IEEE Spectrum |publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |date=22 May 2014 |language=en}}

=Controlling information pollution=

One application treats various forms of information (e.g. spam, advertising) as a form of pollution or 'detrimental externality'.{{cite journal |last1=Chipman |first1=John |last2=Guoqiang |first2=Tian |title=Detrimental Externalities, Pollution Rights, and the "Coase Theorem" |journal=Economic Theory |date=2012 |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=309–327 |doi=10.1007/s00199-011-0602-1 |jstor=41408714 |s2cid=30488295 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41408714 |access-date=1 November 2020}} In economics, an externality is a by-product of a production process that imposes burdens (or supplies benefits), to parties other than the intended consumer of a commodity.{{cite journal |last1=Castle |first1=Emery N |title=The Market Mechanism, Externalities, and Land Economics |journal=American Journal of Agricultural Economics |date=1965 |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=542–556 |doi=10.2307/1236272 |jstor=1236272 |doi-access=free }} For example; air and water pollution are ‘negative’ externalities that impose burdens on society and the environment.

A market-based approach to controlling externalities was outlined in Ronald Coase's The Problem of Social Cost (1960).{{cite book |last1=Coase |first1=R.H |title=Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics |chapter=The Problem of Social Cost |date=1960 |pages=87–137 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |doi=10.1057/9780230523210_6 |isbn=978-0-230-52321-0 |edition=Gopalakrishnan C. (eds) Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523210_6 |access-date=1 November 2020}} This evolved from an article on the Federal Communications Commission (1959),{{cite journal |last1=Coase |first1=R. H |title=The federal communications commission |journal=The Journal of Law and Economics |date=1959 |volume=2 |pages=1–40 |doi=10.1086/466549 |s2cid=222324889 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/466549 |access-date=1 November 2020}} in which Coase claimed that radio-frequency interference is a negative externality that could be controlled by the creation of property rights.

Coase's approach to the management of externalities requires the careful specification of property rights and a set of rules for the initial allocation of the rights.{{cite journal |last1=Furubotn |first1=E. G. |last2=Pejovich |first2=S |title=Property rights and economic theory: a survey of recent literature |journal=Journal of Economic Literature |date=1972 |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=1137–1162 |jstor=2721541 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2721541 |access-date=1 November 2020}} Once these rights are specified and allocated, a market mechanism can theoretically manage the externality problem.{{cite journal |last1=Kim |first1=J |last2=Mahoney |first2=J. T. |title=Property rights theory, transaction costs theory, and agency theory: an organizational economics approach to strategic management |journal=Managerial and Decision Economics |date=2005 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=223–242 |doi=10.1002/mde.1218 |url=https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.1218 |access-date=1 November 2020|hdl=10.1002/mde.1218 |hdl-access=free }}

==E-mail spam==

Sending huge numbers of e-mail messages costs spammers very little, since the costs of e-mail messages are spread out over the internet service providers that distribute them (and the recipients who must spend attention dealing with them).{{cite book |last1=Park |first1=S. Y. |last2=Kim |first2=J. T. |last3=Kang |first3=S. G. |title=2006 8th International Conference Advanced Communication Technology |chapter=Analysis of applicability of traditional spam regulations to VoIP spam |date=2006 |volume=2 |pages=3 pp.-1217 |doi=10.1109/ICACT.2006.206189 |isbn=89-5519-129-4 |s2cid=19059033 |chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1625794 |access-date=1 November 2020}} Thus, sending out as much spam as possible is a rational strategy: even if only 0.001% of recipients (1 in 100,000) is converted into a sale, a spam campaign can be profitable. Of course, it is very difficult to understand where all the revenue comes from since these businesses are run through proxy servers. However, if they were not profitable, it is reasonable to conclude that they would not be sending spam.{{Cite book|last1=Kanich|first1=Chris|last2=Kreibich|first2=Christian|last3=Levchenko|first3=Kirill|last4=Enright|first4=Brandon|last5=Voelker|first5=Geoffrey M.|last6=Paxson|first6=Vern|last7=Savage|first7=Stefan|title=Proceedings of the 15th ACM conference on Computer and communications security |chapter=Spamalytics |date=2008|chapter-url=http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1455770.1455774|language=en|location=Alexandria, Virginia, USA|publisher=ACM Press|pages=3–14|doi=10.1145/1455770.1455774|isbn=978-1-59593-810-7|s2cid=53111639}} Spammers are demanding valuable attention from potential customers, but avoid paying a fair price for this attention due to the current architecture of e-mail systems.{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=K. |last2=Grier |first2=C. |last3=Ma |first3=J. |last4=Paxson |first4=V. |last5=Song |first5=D. |title=2011 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy |chapter=Design and Evaluation of a Real-Time URL Spam Filtering Service |date=2011 |pages=447–462 |doi=10.1109/SP.2011.25 |isbn=978-1-4577-0147-4 |s2cid=1398765 |chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5958045 |access-date=1 November 2020}}

One way this might be mitigated is through the implementation of "Sender Bond" whereby senders are required to post a financial bond that is forfeited if enough recipients report an email as spam.{{cite journal |last1=Hoanca |first1=B. |title=How good are our weapons in the spam wars? |journal=IEEE Technology and Society Magazine |date=2006 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=22–30 |doi=10.1109/MTAS.2006.1607720 |s2cid=23623868 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1607720 |access-date=1 November 2020}}

Closely related is the idea of selling "interrupt rights", or small fees for the right to demand one's attention.{{cite journal |last1=Fahlman |first1=S. E. |title=Selling interrupt rights: A way to control unwanted e-mail and telephone calls |journal=IBM Systems Journal |date=2002 |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=759–766 |doi=10.1147/sj.414.0759 |s2cid=195718575 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5386887 |access-date=1 November 2020}} The cost of these rights could vary according to the person who is interrupted: interrupt rights for the CEO of a Fortune 500 company would presumably be extraordinarily expensive, while those of a high school student might be lower. Costs could also vary for an individual depending on context, perhaps rising during the busy holiday season and falling during the dog days of summer. Those who are interrupted could decline to collect their fees from friends, family, and other welcome interrupters.{{cite journal |last1=Lueg |first1=C. |title=Spam and anti-spam measures: A look at potential impacts |journal=Proc. Informing Science and IT Education Conference |date=2003 |pages=24–27 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228851152 |access-date=1 November 2020}}

Another idea in this vein is the creation of "attention bonds", small warranties that some information will not be a waste of the recipient's time, placed into escrow at the time of sending.{{cite journal |last1=Loder |first1=T. |last2=Van Alstyne |first2=M. |last3=Wash |first3=R. |last4=Benerorfe |first4=M. |title=The spam and attention bond mechanism faq |journal=Technical Report, University of Michigan |date=2004 |url=https://www.itu.int/osg/spu/spam/contributions/Spam%20economics-faq.pdf |access-date=1 November 2020}} Like the granters of interrupt rights, receivers could cash in their bonds to signal to the sender that a given communication was a waste of their time or elect not to cash them in to signal that more communication would be welcome.{{cite journal |last1=Loder |first1=T. |last2=Van Alstyne |first2=M. |last3=Wash |first3=R. |title=An economic response to unsolicited communication |journal=The BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy |date=2006 |volume=6 |issue=1 |doi=10.2202/1538-0637.1322 |s2cid=154784397 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/bejeap/6/1/article-bejeap.2006.6.1.1322.xml.xml |access-date=1 November 2020}}

==Web spam==

As search engines have become a primary means for finding and accessing information on the web, high rankings in the results for certain queries have become valuable commodities, due to the ability of search engines to focus searchers' attention.{{cite book |last1=Ge |first1=S. |last2=Dou |first2=Z. |last3=Jiang |first3=Z. |last4=Nie |first4=J. Y. |last5=Wen |first5=J. R. |title=Proceedings of the 27th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management |chapter=Personalizing Search Results Using Hierarchical RNN with Query-aware Attention |series=Cikm '18 |date=2018 |pages=347–356 |doi=10.1145/3269206.3271728 |arxiv=1908.07600 |isbn=9781450360142 |s2cid=53034987 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3269206.3271728 |access-date=1 November 2020}} Like other information systems, web search is vulnerable to pollution: "Because the Web environment contains profit seeking ventures, attention getting strategies evolve in response to search engine algorithms".{{cite web |last1=Page |first1=L. |last2=Brin |first2=S. |last3=Motwani |first3=R. |last4=Winograd |first4=T. |title=The PageRank citation ranking: Bringing order to the web 1999 |date=11 November 1999 |url=http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422/ |publisher=Stanford InfoLab |access-date=1 November 2020}}

Since most major search engines now rely on some form of PageRank (recursive counting of hyperlinks to a site) to determine search result rankings, a gray market in the creation and trading of hyperlinks has emerged.{{cite journal |last1=Zook |first1=M. A. |last2=Graham |first2=M. |title=Mapping DigiPlace: geocoded Internet data and the representation of place |journal=Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design |date=2007 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=466–482 |doi=10.1068/b3311 |bibcode=2007EnPlB..34..466Z |s2cid=6884167 |url=https://doi.org/10.1068/b3311 |access-date=1 November 2020}}{{cite journal |last1=Gonçalves |first1=M. A. |last2=Almeida |first2=J. M.|author2-link=Jussara M. Almeida |last3=dos Santos |first3=L. G. |last4=Laender |first4=A. H. |last5=Almeida |first5=V. |title=On popularity in the blogosphere |journal=IEEE Internet Computing |date=2010 |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=42–49 |doi=10.1109/MIC.2010.73 |s2cid=11296597 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5481366 |access-date=1 November 2020}} Participants in this market engage in a variety of practices known as link spamming, link farming, and reciprocal linking.{{cite book |last1=Ghosh |first1=S. |last2=Viswanath |first2=B. |last3=Kooti |first3=F. |last4=Sharma |first4=N.K. |last5=Korlam |first5=G. |last6=Benevenuto |first6=F. |last7=Ganguly |first7=N. |last8=Gummadi |first8=K. P. |title=Proceedings of the 21st international conference on World Wide Web |chapter=Understanding and combating link farming in the twitter social network |series=WWW '12 |date=2012 |pages=61–70 |doi=10.1145/2187836.2187846 |isbn=9781450312295 |s2cid=15556648 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/2187836.2187846 |access-date=1 November 2020}}

Another issue, similar to the issue discussed above of whether or not to consider political e-mail campaigns as spam, is what to do about politically motivated link campaigns or Google bombs.{{cite journal |last1=Hargittai |first1=E. |title=The social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of search engines: An introduction |journal=Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication |date=2007 |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=769–777 |doi=10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00349.x |doi-access=free }} Currently, the major search engines do not treat these as web spam, but this is a decision made unilaterally by private companies.

=Sales lead generation=

The paid inclusion model, as well as more pervasive advertising networks like Yahoo! Publisher Network and Google's AdSense, work by treating consumer attention as the property of the search engine (in the case of paid inclusion) or the publisher (in the case of advertising networks).{{cite book |last1=Weideman |first1=Melius |title=Ethical issues on content distribution to digital consumers via paid placement as opposed to website visibility in search engine results |date=2004 |publisher=University of the Aegean |location=Greece |isbn=960-7475-25-9 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/11189/1460 |access-date=1 November 2020}}{{cite web |last1=Moss |first1=Kenneth A. |last2=Watson |first2=Eric |last3=Seidman |first3=Eytan D |title=Paid inclusion listing enhancement 2011 |url=https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/11/01/f6/abd8f3a33c2c80/US7953631.pdf |publisher=U.S. Patent No. 7,953,631 |access-date=1 November 2020}} This is somewhat different from the anti-spam uses of property rights in attention, which treat an individual's attention as his or her own property.

These advertising models significantly influence consumer behavior, often leveraging personal data to target ads more effectively. While this can enhance user experience by aligning advertisements with user interests, it raises privacy concerns and can lead to consumer manipulation. The phenomenon of "ad fatigue" where excessive exposure to ads leads to reduced attention and engagement with advertisements is also noteworthy. {{Cite book |last1=Abrams |first1=Zoë |last2=Vee |first2=Erik |chapter=Personalized Ad Delivery when Ads Fatigue: An Approximation Algorithm |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |date=2007 |volume=4858 |editor-last=Deng |editor-first=Xiaotie |editor2-last=Graham |editor2-first=Fan Chung |title=Internet and Network Economics |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-77105-0_57 |language=en |location=Berlin, Heidelberg |publisher=Springer |pages=535–540 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-77105-0_57 |isbn=978-3-540-77105-0}}

Advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning have transformed paid inclusion and advertising networks. These technologies allow for more sophisticated targeting and personalization of ads, improving effectiveness but also increasing concerns about surveillance and data privacy.{{Cite web |last=Team |first=aX |date=2023-01-20 |title=The Impact of AI in Advertising |url=https://audiencex.com/insights/ai-in-advertising/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=AX Insights |language=en-US}}

The regulation of paid inclusion and advertising networks is complex, involving multiple stakeholders with diverse interests. There is an ongoing debate about the balance between encouraging innovation and protecting consumer privacy. Ethical considerations also include the transparency of these models and their impact on the informational ecosystem, potentially leading to biased or manipulated content.{{Cite web |last=Kuschell |first=Dan |date=2024-05-05 |title=The Ethics of Targeted Advertising: Balancing Relevance & Privacy |url=https://breakthrough3x.com/resources/the-ethics-of-targeted-advertising/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |language=en-US}}