Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/327688 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 12078
Publisher: 
Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research - CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
Models of limited attention have the potential to become a new unifying paradigm that could replace the rational choice approach. In this paper, we test the limited attention hypothesis by enhancing attention using pharmacological substances. A total of 160 subjects participated in our randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blind experimental study. We find that enhancing attention through boosting the noradrenergic system with reboxetine improves the quality of choice as captured by multiple different measures of rationality. Eye-tracking suggests that boosting noradrenaline promotes more rational choice by efficiently directing attention to more valuable options. Other attention-enhancing drugs (methylphenidate, which boosts the dopaminergic system, and nicotine, which boosts the cholinergic system) improve rationality to a lesser extent. Aside from testing the limited attention hypothesis directly, our results have implications for welfare economics, policy-design, and public health.
Subjects: 
limited attention
rationality
pharmacology
JEL: 
B41
C91
D01
D60
D91
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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