How Cost Shapes Attention and Search: An Experimental Study on the Process of Search

We use a laboratory eye-tracking experiment to examine how the different allocation of costs shape individual attention and search. We find that individuals avoid costly search alternatives and narrow their search depending on the type of costs they face. Avoiding costly search and narrowing search distance occurs when individuals have to bear their own costs, as well as when costs are shared with other individuals, it does not occur when other individuals have to bear the costs. When individuals face own or shared costs, their focus of attention on performance facilitates exploitation. These results suggest that private costs, both own costs and shared costs, shape attention and search. We discuss implications for organization design and management theory.