To Savour Consumption or To Confront Dread: The Hedonic Opportunity Cost of Attention

Abstract People face a fundamental trade-off between savouring consumption in the present and processing information. Both require attention, which is limited. As a result, directing attention to one necessarily comes at the expense of the other. We study this attentional opportunity cost, focusing on cases where information concerns potentially distressing future outcomes. Across four experiments, we find that higher present consumption reduces demand for such information and increases willingness to pay for risk mitigation. These findings have implications for models of anticipatory utility, self-regulation under limited attention and the political economy of distraction—helping to explain, for instance, why political actors might suppress demand for information by offering ‘bread and circuses’.