Attention is a way of giving priority to information. Attention is one of the key productive factors in the modern economy. Our capacity to acquire and process information is fundamentally limited. Attending to one task or source of information necessarily excludes other potential efforts, thereby generating opportunity costs. This means that we must often make consequential choices about what we pay attention to.

The followings illustrate how attention is oriented, voluntarily or involuntarily (Loewenstein, 2023).

Our working memory forms the basis of our attentional resource. Working memory is defined as the ability to control attention, and distraction (e.g., irrelevant emails or text messages). Individuals with better working memory (and higher intelligence) are more skillful at shifting attention away from the tempting aspects of the immediate rewards.

Working memory can be temporarily impaired by anxiety or stress, craving, and alcohol intoxication. When people are exhausted or anxious, their willpower is drained. Stress and exhaustion ruin our attention. From an........

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