Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GOODATTENTION (Good attention: Attention norms and their role in practical reason, epistemology, and ethics)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-03-01 al 2024-08-31
What deserves attention and what should be ignored? What is good attention and what is bad attention? Much public discussion about social media, public health, and political debates focuses on what deserves our attention and how we should regulate our attention in the face of distraction. Policy makers, advocacy groups, and private citizens reflect on problems of attention, and need to consider what rights and obligations states, individuals, and other private actors have in the so-called attention-economy.
What is missing is a philosophical investigation of attention norms and a framework for thinking about them. This is what GoodAttention provides. While entire fields of philosophy investigate the normative assessment of other aspects of the mind, the normative structure of attention has remained largely unstudied. GoodAttention conducts interdisciplinary research on attention and the norms that do and should guide it. It concerns normative questions about attention: about, for example, ethically correct, rational, or unjust patterns of attention. It integrates research in psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics with the philosophical fields of decision theory, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. It develops a unified foundation for the study of attention norms.
GoodAttention aims, first, to understand the biological function of attention (subproject 1) and how social norms of attention govern the behavior of groups of individuals (sub-project 2). GoodAttention aims, second, to evaluate attention norms by integrating them into normative philosophy: the theory of practical rationality (Sub-project 3), epistemology (Sub-project 4), and ethics and political philosophy (Sub-project 5).
Contemporary societies face challenges about how to organize and share information, about mental health, collective action, and new media landscapes. GoodAttention’s
unified research program can help tackle these challenges. Its investigation of the function and social role of attention, its rational role. epistemic significance, and ethical rights and duties regarding attention provides an analytical framework as input for policy making.
What is missing is a philosophical investigation of attention norms and a framework for thinking about them. This is what GoodAttention provides. While entire fields of philosophy investigate the normative assessment of other aspects of the mind, the normative structure of attention has remained largely unstudied. GoodAttention conducts interdisciplinary research on attention and the norms that do and should guide it. It concerns normative questions about attention: about, for example, ethically correct, rational, or unjust patterns of attention. It integrates research in psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics with the philosophical fields of decision theory, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. It develops a unified foundation for the study of attention norms.
GoodAttention aims, first, to understand the biological function of attention (subproject 1) and how social norms of attention govern the behavior of groups of individuals (sub-project 2). GoodAttention aims, second, to evaluate attention norms by integrating them into normative philosophy: the theory of practical rationality (Sub-project 3), epistemology (Sub-project 4), and ethics and political philosophy (Sub-project 5).
Contemporary societies face challenges about how to organize and share information, about mental health, collective action, and new media landscapes. GoodAttention’s
unified research program can help tackle these challenges. Its investigation of the function and social role of attention, its rational role. epistemic significance, and ethical rights and duties regarding attention provides an analytical framework as input for policy making.
In the first project period our research was mostly focused on the first three subprojects: the investigation of the biological function of attention, how attention is subject to social norms, and how it impacts rational agency.
Within subproject 1, we have investigated what problem attention is helping an organism solve. We argue that a core cognitive function of attention is to make agency more flexible. This ability is essential for self-control. We argue further that attention is performing its natural (or proper) function only when it, in a flexible way, prioritizes processes so that they serve the organism’s needs. We apply our account to better understands disorders like ADHD and the functioning of attention in contemporary environments.
Within subproject 2, we have shown that social stereotypes are prioritized at the expense of other information that is more task relevant. We argue further that the distribution of cues in non-verbal social interactions (such as covert attention shifts) reflects and reinforces power-dynamics and social stereo-types. In ongoing work, we argue that social attention and communication is also affected by how cognitive load reflects social biases. We have explored transgender stereotypes as a case study.
Within subproject 3 we argue that salience is not an irrational distortion of agency and decision making, but helps agents responds rationally to what their situation demands. We are developing an account of how attention interacts with belief and decision making, and we investigate the interaction of the norms of attention in agency and communicative norms.
Within subproject 4 our preliminary work suggests a central role of attention in inquiry and connections (and tensions) between the epistemic role of attention and an evaluation of attention in terms of fittingness (what deserves our attention).
Within subproject 5, we have investigated how moral and political norms on attention interact with other norms on it. We have had a focus on an investigation of the ethics of the commodification of attention. We have argued that there are markets for attention that resemble labor markets. Where they intersects with other domains, attention market are bound to lead to tensions, we argue, while also carrying special risks for rights violations.
Within subproject 1, we have investigated what problem attention is helping an organism solve. We argue that a core cognitive function of attention is to make agency more flexible. This ability is essential for self-control. We argue further that attention is performing its natural (or proper) function only when it, in a flexible way, prioritizes processes so that they serve the organism’s needs. We apply our account to better understands disorders like ADHD and the functioning of attention in contemporary environments.
Within subproject 2, we have shown that social stereotypes are prioritized at the expense of other information that is more task relevant. We argue further that the distribution of cues in non-verbal social interactions (such as covert attention shifts) reflects and reinforces power-dynamics and social stereo-types. In ongoing work, we argue that social attention and communication is also affected by how cognitive load reflects social biases. We have explored transgender stereotypes as a case study.
Within subproject 3 we argue that salience is not an irrational distortion of agency and decision making, but helps agents responds rationally to what their situation demands. We are developing an account of how attention interacts with belief and decision making, and we investigate the interaction of the norms of attention in agency and communicative norms.
Within subproject 4 our preliminary work suggests a central role of attention in inquiry and connections (and tensions) between the epistemic role of attention and an evaluation of attention in terms of fittingness (what deserves our attention).
Within subproject 5, we have investigated how moral and political norms on attention interact with other norms on it. We have had a focus on an investigation of the ethics of the commodification of attention. We have argued that there are markets for attention that resemble labor markets. Where they intersects with other domains, attention market are bound to lead to tensions, we argue, while also carrying special risks for rights violations.
Before GoodAttention, contemporary normative philosophy contained no sustained and systematic treatment of attention norms. Our research has already changed that. With our work on the ethics of attention, and our systematic approach that unites normative questions with our understanding of the nature of attention and its actual role in the mind, the study of attention norms now emerges as a central and important area of philosophy. We highlight a few points:
• Our work on the biological function of attention centers on the role of agency and needs. This approach, we argue, moves the debate beyond the focus on successful task completion or a dichotomy between mind-wandering and focused attention.
• We also show how deeply norm-guided attention behavior affects non-verbal communication, and other face-to-face social interactions. Our sensitivity to social dominance relations, and social stereo-types literally affects how we see the world, and how and with whom we communicate at a very basic level.
• Our work on rationality, salience, and attention promises to change what rational agency amounts to. Rather than viewing attention and salience-effects as limiting factors, they are productive capacities that unlock aspects of situation-specific rational agency otherwise unavailable.
• Our work on the commodification of attention shows that we can take the idea of an attention market literally and understand it like we understand labor markets. Our analysis shows the need for better regulations and points toward what such regulations might look like.
Our focus in the next project period will be twofold.
First, we work on the epistemic, ethical, and political roles of attention. We expect to show a central epistemic role of attention, and, for the first time, develop an account of how individuals and institutions can promote good attention norms for ensuring the proper functioning of democratic deliberation.
Second, we will connect the strands of our reseaech in a unified framework. This framework will reach from the evolution of attention in the biological world and the socialization of attention in humans and the social and culture norms that come with it, to an account that integrates (but also explores tensions between) the epistemic role of attention with its role in agency, and its individual function with the political and ethical norms that govern it in our societies.
• Our work on the biological function of attention centers on the role of agency and needs. This approach, we argue, moves the debate beyond the focus on successful task completion or a dichotomy between mind-wandering and focused attention.
• We also show how deeply norm-guided attention behavior affects non-verbal communication, and other face-to-face social interactions. Our sensitivity to social dominance relations, and social stereo-types literally affects how we see the world, and how and with whom we communicate at a very basic level.
• Our work on rationality, salience, and attention promises to change what rational agency amounts to. Rather than viewing attention and salience-effects as limiting factors, they are productive capacities that unlock aspects of situation-specific rational agency otherwise unavailable.
• Our work on the commodification of attention shows that we can take the idea of an attention market literally and understand it like we understand labor markets. Our analysis shows the need for better regulations and points toward what such regulations might look like.
Our focus in the next project period will be twofold.
First, we work on the epistemic, ethical, and political roles of attention. We expect to show a central epistemic role of attention, and, for the first time, develop an account of how individuals and institutions can promote good attention norms for ensuring the proper functioning of democratic deliberation.
Second, we will connect the strands of our reseaech in a unified framework. This framework will reach from the evolution of attention in the biological world and the socialization of attention in humans and the social and culture norms that come with it, to an account that integrates (but also explores tensions between) the epistemic role of attention with its role in agency, and its individual function with the political and ethical norms that govern it in our societies.