Attention theft
{{short description|Concept in marketing and psychology}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{use American English|date=August 2021}}
File:Billboard in Menands, New York.jpgs are a commonly cited example of attention theft.]]
Attention theft is a theory in economic sociology and psychology which describes situations in which marketers serve advertisements to consumers who have not consented to view them and who are given nothing in return. Perpetrators seek to distract targets with their advertising content, thereby commandeering their attention.{{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}}{{Cite book|last=McCullough|first=Malcolm|authorlink=Malcolm McCullough|url=|title=Ambient Commons: Attention in the Age of Embodied Information|publisher=MIT Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-262-31348-3|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}
Attention theft has been criticized as an example of unethical marketing. It is related to the concept of the attention economy, which posits that attention is a scarce resource and applies economic theory to it.
Psychological basis
People are susceptible to attention theft because they tend by default to pay attention to whatever stimuli in their environment are most noticeable, a phenomenon known in psychology as exogenous orienting. Advertisers are able to serve content deliberately engineered to be distracting, making it difficult to ignore.{{Cite book|last1=Gazzaley|first1=Adam|last2=Rosen|first2=Larry D.|title=The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World|date=2013|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-1-60883-818-9}} Examples of this type of content can include bold animations, crowded designs, and frequent or unnecessary notifications.{{cn|date=August 2023}}
File:Nissan Caravan sound truck of JCP in Okazaki, Aichi 20090520.jpgs are frequently used in Japan to broadcast political or commercial messages in residential neighbourhoods.]]
Examples
Commonly cited examples of attention theft include billboards, apps that send out promotional notifications, sound trucks, email spam, and TV screens with mostly or entirely promotional content in locations with a captive audience, such as gas stations, airplanes, waiting rooms, and taxis.{{cite web |last1=Hayes |first1=Tom |author1-link=Tom Hayes (author) |title=Next Up for the Internet: The Attention Rights Movement |url=http://tombomb.com/2009/01/next-up-for-the-internet-the-attention-rights-movement.html |website=Tombomb |access-date=9 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903093802/http://tombomb.com/2009/01/next-up-for-the-internet-the-attention-rights-movement.html |archive-date=September 3, 2017 |date=3 September 2017}}
Criticism
Critics of attention theft characterize it as a type of unethical marketing. They argue that it contributes to information overload, leading to negative health outcomes, and infringes upon freedom of thought. Writing in Wired in 2017, legal scholar Tim Wu urged municipal governments to pass laws prohibiting some instances of attention theft. He and others fear that imminent technological advances may increase the pervasiveness of the phenomenon.
See also
{{Div col|colwidth=15em|content=* Attention economy
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commonscatinline|Attention theft}}
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