Attention Management by Visual Salience in Environmental, Social, and Governance Report

ABSTRACT Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reports have become an essential part of corporate communication and may serve as a tool for firm reputation and impression management owing to their voluntary nature. This study examines visual salience in ESG reports building on theories from experimental economics and advancements in artificial intelligence. Using fixation prediction, we quantify and examine two mechanisms of bottom-up attention—contrast-based and surprise-based salience—and analyze their association with firms' ESG commitment across the environmental, social, and governance pillar scores. Our results show that reports from less committed firms are more likely to show distracting patterns with an overwhelming number of salient points and regions unevenly populated across all pages. Stakeholders encountering reports with numerous distracting elements should exercise caution and maintain a focus on the essence and content since the presentation may not adequately capture the company's commitment to ESG. JEL Classifications: M41.