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.

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. Examples of this type of content can include bold animations, crowded designs, and frequent or unnecessary notifications.

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.

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

References

External links

• Media related to Attention theft at Wikimedia Commons

1. Grand Theft Auto VI
2. Theft
3. Attention economy
4. Attention
5. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
6. Grand Theft Auto III
7. Grand Theft Auto V
8. Identity theft
9. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
10. Information overload
11. Email spam
12. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition
13. Distraction
14. Sound truck
15. Advertising
16. Red herring
17. Freedom of thought
18. Trevor Philips
19. Art theft
20. Criticism of advertising