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Pay Attention: a Call to Regulate the Attention Market and Prevent Algorithmic Emotional Governance

Franck Michel, Fabien Gandon

TL;DR

The paper examines the unsustainable attention market where platforms monetize mental engagement via ads, leveraging cognitive biases and massive recommendation systems to maximize engagement. It analyzes how self-reinforcing recommendation loops and emotion-driven content amplify polarization and misinformation, risking democracy and creativity. Introducing algorithmic emotional governance, it argues for proactive, interdisciplinary regulation that goes beyond post hoc fixes. The authors propose a comprehensive set of measures—carrot and stick economics, usage regulation, content monitoring, redesigned interfaces, educational missions, transparency requirements, and building on existing best practices—to reclaim attention and treat digital platforms as digital commons with societal responsibilities.

Abstract

Over the last 70 years, we, humans, have created an economic market where attention is being captured and turned into money thanks to advertising. During the last two decades, leveraging research in psychology, sociology, neuroscience and other domains, Web platforms have brought the process of capturing attention to an unprecedented scale. With the initial commonplace goal of making targeted advertising more effective, the generalization of attention-capturing techniques and their use of cognitive biases and emotions have multiple detrimental side effects such as polarizing opinions, spreading false information and threatening public health, economies and democracies. This is clearly a case where the Web is not used for the common good and where, in fact, all its users become a vulnerable population. This paper brings together contributions from a wide range of disciplines to analyze current practices and consequences thereof. Through a set of propositions and principles that could be used do drive further works, it calls for actions against these practices competing to capture our attention on the Web, as it would be unsustainable for a civilization to allow attention to be wasted with impunity on a world-wide scale.

Pay Attention: a Call to Regulate the Attention Market and Prevent Algorithmic Emotional Governance

TL;DR

The paper examines the unsustainable attention market where platforms monetize mental engagement via ads, leveraging cognitive biases and massive recommendation systems to maximize engagement. It analyzes how self-reinforcing recommendation loops and emotion-driven content amplify polarization and misinformation, risking democracy and creativity. Introducing algorithmic emotional governance, it argues for proactive, interdisciplinary regulation that goes beyond post hoc fixes. The authors propose a comprehensive set of measures—carrot and stick economics, usage regulation, content monitoring, redesigned interfaces, educational missions, transparency requirements, and building on existing best practices—to reclaim attention and treat digital platforms as digital commons with societal responsibilities.

Abstract

Over the last 70 years, we, humans, have created an economic market where attention is being captured and turned into money thanks to advertising. During the last two decades, leveraging research in psychology, sociology, neuroscience and other domains, Web platforms have brought the process of capturing attention to an unprecedented scale. With the initial commonplace goal of making targeted advertising more effective, the generalization of attention-capturing techniques and their use of cognitive biases and emotions have multiple detrimental side effects such as polarizing opinions, spreading false information and threatening public health, economies and democracies. This is clearly a case where the Web is not used for the common good and where, in fact, all its users become a vulnerable population. This paper brings together contributions from a wide range of disciplines to analyze current practices and consequences thereof. Through a set of propositions and principles that could be used do drive further works, it calls for actions against these practices competing to capture our attention on the Web, as it would be unsustainable for a civilization to allow attention to be wasted with impunity on a world-wide scale.
Paper Structure (14 sections, 2 figures)

This paper contains 14 sections, 2 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. An Unsustainable Attention Market
  2. Users in the Loop... of Recommendation Systems
  3. Algorithmic Emotional Governance
  4. Attention, Attention, all Thinkers
  5. Known Post Hoc Counter-Measures
  6. Reclaiming Our Attention
  7. The Carrot and the Stick
  8. Usage Regulation
  9. Content Recommendation Monitoring
  10. Affordances and Interaction Design
  11. Societal Impact and Educational Mission
  12. Feedback and Transparency Enforcement
  13. Build on Existing Practices
  14. Thank you for... your Attention

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: The self-reinforcing recommendation loop of platforms: the ellipses are activities on the user side, the boxes are activities on the platform side. Select and Trace are grey boxes because only partially observable. The A.I. processing is, more than often, a black box for the end-user.
  • Figure 2: Five interfaces of well-known social media to react to a post.

Theorems & Definitions (3)

  • Definition 1.1: Attention Market
  • Definition 2.1: Self-Reinforcing Recommendation Loop
  • Definition 3.1: Algorithmic Emotional Governance