Using Eye-Tracking Techniques to Understand the Role of Attention on Choice and Reversals

In classical preference reversal (PR) experiments, participants often choose the safer of two gambles but express a higher monetary evaluation for the riskier. We use eye-tracking techniques to explore three hypotheses regarding how attention may influence such behavior, based on leading theories from the literature. Taking into account recent models of imprecise preferences, first, we predict higher consistency when subjects spend (sufficiently) more time on Evaluation than Choice; intuitively, the difficult task requires more attention to be performed without ‘mistakes’. Our data is in line with this prediction. The second hypothesis states that a higher focus on the safer bet during Choice, but not Evaluation, rises the frequency of standard PRs. We also find positive evidence for this hypothesis, lending in this case support to recent drift diffusion models. Based on psychological theories like Compatibility and Prominence, third, we hypothesize that the PR rate increases if subjects focus differently on the attributes of the bets across tasks. However, we observe that the share of fixations on probabilities versus prizes has little influence on the PR rate.