The Anatomy of Attention

In PR, we strive for attention.

But how does atten­tion work?
Are there dif­fer­ent types of atten­tion?
What does sci­ence say about attention?

Here we go:

The Anatomy of Attention

Attention is an essen­tial com­pon­ent of pub­lic relations:

An organ­isa­tion, starved of atten­tion, trust, and loy­alty, is com­pelled to wage a per­petu­al struggle for its con­tin­ued existence.

And it’s not just organ­isa­tions. We all seem to crave atten­tion in some form or another:

“People want to be loved; fail­ing that admired; fail­ing that feared; fail­ing that hated and des­pised. They want to evoke some sort of sen­ti­ment. The soul shud­ders before obli­vi­on and seeks con­nec­tion at any price.”
— Hjalmar Söderberg (1869−1941), Swedish author

It’s fear of social isol­a­tion—and atten­tion star­va­tion.

“There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
— Oscar Wilde

Types of Attention

But what con­sti­tutes ‘atten­tion’?

“Attention is a com­plex, real neur­al archi­tec­ture (‘RNA’) mod­el that integ­rates vari­ous cog­nit­ive mod­els and brain cen­ters to per­form tasks like visu­al search.”
Source: Trends in cog­nit­ive sci­ences ¹Shipp, S. (2004). The brain cir­cuitry of atten­tion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 223 – 230. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​j​.​t​i​c​s​.​2​0​0​4​.​0​3​.​004

Each of the below terms refers to a spe­cif­ic aspect or type of atten­tion (“men­tal band­width”), a com­plex cog­nit­ive pro­cess. ²Schweizer, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Goldhammer, F. (2005). The struc­ture of the rela­tion­ship between atten­tion and intel­li­gence. Intelligence, 33(6), 589 – 611. … Continue read­ing

Let’s explore dif­fer­ent types of attention:

Each type of atten­tion is likely to play a role in how we inter­act with and pro­cess inform­a­tion from our envir­on­ment, and under­stand­ing these dif­fer­ent aspects is key in fields like psy­cho­logy, neur­os­cience, and education.

Learn more: The Anatomy of Attention

The Languages of Fascination

Author Sally Hogshead cre­ated the concept and the visu­al rep­res­ent­a­tion of the lan­guages of fas­cin­a­tion. Discover more at how​to​fas​cin​ate​.com.

Hogshead’s mod­el is a help­ful primer for copy­writ­ing for per­son­al brands in all types of industries.

“80% of people behave dif­fer­ently when they’re fas­cin­ated by a brand. They do research, talk to friends. In fact, con­sumers report spe­cif­ic phys­ic­al responses to fas­cin­at­ing products: a faster heart rate and ‘thrill’ of excite­ment.“
Source: Sally Hogshead ³Hogshead, S. (2024, October 10). How to Fascinate. https://​www​.how​to​fas​cin​ate​.com/

The 7 Languages of Fascination

What is the lan­guage of fascination?

Hogshead’s 49 Personality Archetypes

What type of per­son­al­ity arche­type are you?

Learn more: Take Hogshead’s “Fascinate Assessment”

The Online Brain Hypothesis

In the rap­idly evolving digit­al age, how we pro­cess inform­a­tion is being trans­formed. The rise of the inter­net and its ever-chan­ging stream of inform­a­tion have led to a notice­able shift in our atten­tion­al capacities. 

“The Internet can alter our cog­ni­tion, affect­ing atten­tion, memory, and social cog­ni­tion, with poten­tial brain changes.”
Source: World Psychiatry ⁴Firth, J., Torous, J., Stubbs, B., Firth, J., Steiner, G., Smith, L., Alvarez-Jimenez, M., Gleeson, J., Vancampfort, D., Armitage, C., & Sarris, J. (2019). The “online brain”: how the … Continue read­ing

A study pub­lished in the National Center for Biotechnology Information high­lights this trend, emphas­ising how the mul­ti­tude of online media sources vies for our atten­tion, often at the expense of our abil­ity to con­cen­trate for exten­ded peri­ods. ⁵Firth, J., Torous, J., Stubbs, B., Firth, J. A., Steiner, G. Z., Smith, L., Gleeson, J., Vancampfort, D., Armitage, C. J., & Sarris, J. (2019). The “online brain”: How the Internet may be … Continue read­ing

“The human brain’s atten­tion sys­tem has evolved over time, with genet­ic vari­ations and exper­i­ence play­ing a role in indi­vidu­al dif­fer­ences in atten­tion­al effi­ciency.”
Source: Annual review of neur­os­cience ⁶Petersen, S., & Posner, M. (2012). The atten­tion sys­tem of the human brain. Annual review of neur­os­cience, 35, 73 – 89. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​1​4​6​/​a​n​n​u​r​e​v​-​n​e​u​r​o​-​0​6​2​111 – 150525

This phe­nomen­on, some­times called the ‘online brain’, raises crit­ic­al ques­tions about the long-term effects of digit­al media on cog­nit­ive func­tions, includ­ing memory and focus. 

Brains and Narrowing Attention Spans

The broad­er implic­a­tions of our inter­ac­tion with digit­al media are fur­ther under­scored by a study in Nature Communications, which reveals a nar­row­ing of our col­lect­ive atten­tion span. ⁷Abundance of inform­a­tion nar­rows our col­lect­ive atten­tion span. (2019, April 15). ScienceDaily. https://​www​.sci​en​cedaily​.com/​r​e​l​e​a​s​e​s​/​2​0​1​9​/​0​4​/​1​9​0​4​1​5​0​8​1​9​5​9​.​htm

This phe­nomen­on is not just con­fined to social media; it’s a trend observed across vari­ous domains, sug­gest­ing a wide­spread cul­tur­al shift in how we con­sume and pro­cess information. 

The gradu­al decline in atten­tion spans, par­tic­u­larly over the last few dec­ades, sig­nals a press­ing chal­lenge for today’s organ­isa­tions. Research by Gloria Mark, PhD, from the University of California Irvine, sheds light on how our engage­ments with the inter­net and digit­al devices reshape our focus. ⁸Mark, G. (2023). Why our atten­tion spans are shrink­ing. American Psychological Association. https://​www​.apa​.org/​n​e​w​s​/​p​o​d​c​a​s​t​s​/​s​p​e​a​k​i​n​g​-​o​f​-​p​s​y​c​h​o​l​o​g​y​/​a​t​t​e​n​t​i​o​n​-​s​p​ans

The study’s find­ings are a wake-up call to busi­nesses and con­tent cre­at­ors, indic­at­ing that cap­tur­ing and main­tain­ing an audi­ence’s atten­tion is becom­ing more challenging. 

Despite the grow­ing con­cern over the impact of social media and the fast-paced news cycle on our atten­tion spans, a gap in empir­ic­al data per­sists. This lack of con­crete evid­ence points to the neces­sity for more rig­or­ous research to under­stand the true extent of mass medi­a’s influ­ence on cog­nit­ive func­tions. ⁹Abundance of inform­a­tion nar­rows our col­lect­ive atten­tion span. (2019, April 15). EurekAlert! https://​www​.eurekalert​.org/​n​e​w​s​-​r​e​l​e​a​s​e​s​/​4​9​0​177

Learn more: The Online Brain Hypothesis

Social Group Sizes (For Social Brains)

How many social con­nec­tions you you com­fort­ably sus­tain? According to the social brain hypo­thes­is, lim­its exist. ¹⁰Zhou WX, Sornette D, Hill RA, Dunbar RI. Discrete hier­arch­ic­al organ­iz­a­tion of social group sizes. Proc Biol Sci. 2005 Feb 22;272(1561):439 – 44.

“The ‘social brain hypo­thes­is’ for the evol­u­tion of large brains in prim­ates has led to evid­ence for the coe­volu­tion of neo­cor­tic­al size and social group sizes, sug­gest­ing that there is a cog­nit­ive con­straint on group size that depends, in some way, on the volume of neur­al mater­i­al avail­able for pro­cessing and syn­thes­iz­ing inform­a­tion on social rela­tion­ships.”
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences ¹¹Zhou, X., Sornette, D., Hill, R. A., & M. Dunbar, R. I. (2005). Discrete hier­arch­ic­al organ­iz­a­tion of social group sizes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272(1561), … Continue read­ing

Scientific evid­ence sug­gests that people tend to organ­ise them­selves not in an even dis­tri­bu­tion of group sizes but in dis­crete hier­arch­ic­al social groups of more par­tic­u­lar sizes:

Alas, there seems to be a dis­crete stat­ist­ic­al order in the com­plex chaos of human relationships:

“Such dis­crete scale invari­ance could be related to that iden­ti­fied in sig­na­tures of herd­ing beha­viour in fin­an­cial mar­kets and might reflect a hier­arch­ic­al pro­cessing of social near­ness by human brains.“
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences ¹²Zhou, X., Sornette, D., Hill, R. A., & M. Dunbar, R. I. (2005). Discrete hier­arch­ic­al organ­iz­a­tion of social group sizes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272(1561), … Continue read­ing

Read also: Group Sizes (The Social Brain Hypothesis)

Enter: The Electronic Age

Human cul­ture is often described based on our access to pro­duc­tion tech­no­lo­gies (e.g., the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age).

According to Marshall McLuhan and the Toronto School of Communication Theory, a bet­ter ana­lys­is would be to view soci­et­al devel­op­ment based on the prom­in­ence of emer­ging com­mu­nic­a­tions technologies.

McLuhan’s Four Epochs

McLuhan sug­gests divid­ing human civil­isa­tion into four epochs:

“The Gutenberg Galaxy is a land­mark book that intro­duced the concept of the glob­al vil­lage and estab­lished Marshall McLuhan as the ori­gin­al ‘media guru’, with more than 200,000 cop­ies in print.”
Source: Modern Language Review ¹³McLuhan, M. (1963). The Gutenberg galaxy: the mak­ing of typo­graph­ic man. Modern Language Review, 58, 542. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​2​3​0​7​/​3​7​1​9​923

As a PR pro­fes­sion­al and lin­guist, I sub­scribe to the concept of the Electronic Age. I firmly believe soci­ety is unlikely to revert to the Gutenberg Galaxy.

Like the rest of soci­ety, the PR industry must com­mit to digit­al-first, too. Mark my words: It’s all-in or bust.

Read also: The Electronic Age and the End of the Gutenberg Galaxy

Echo Chambers on Digital Platforms

Echo cham­bers, amp­li­fied by con­firm­a­tion bias and media logic, pose a sig­ni­fic­ant soci­et­al prob­lem. They cre­ate envir­on­ments where indi­vidu­als are exposed primar­ily to opin­ions and inform­a­tion that rein­force their exist­ing beliefs, lead­ing to a nar­row, often dis­tor­ted worldview. 

“Echo cham­bers in social media con­trib­ute to the vir­al spread of mis­in­form­a­tion by act­ing as ini­tial band­wag­ons for com­plex con­ta­gions.”
Source: PLoS ONE ¹⁴Törnberg, P. (2018). Echo cham­bers and vir­al mis­in­form­a­tion: Modeling fake news as com­plex con­ta­gion. PLoS ONE, 13. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​3​7​1​/​j​o​u​r​n​a​l​.​p​o​n​e​.​0​2​0​3​958

In echo cham­bers, crit­ic­al think­ing and expos­ure to diverse per­spect­ives are lim­ited, which can con­trib­ute to spread­ing mis­in­form­a­tion and entrench­ing extrem­ist views. ¹⁵Silfwer, J. (2018, August 6). How To Fight Populism. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​h​o​w​-​t​o​-​f​i​g​h​t​-​p​o​p​u​l​i​sm/

“Echo cham­bers are not just spaces where opin­ions are excluded, but also spaces where beliefs are rein­forced, con­trib­ut­ing to mis­in­form­a­tion and col­lab­or­at­ive res­ist­ance.”
Source: Episteme ¹⁶Elzinga, B. (2020). Echo Chambers and Audio Signal Processing. Episteme, 19, 373 — 393. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​7​/​e​p​i​.​2​0​2​0​.33

Such isol­a­tion can intensi­fy ideo­lo­gic­al polar­isa­tion, dimin­ish­ing the oppor­tun­ity for con­struct­ive dia­logue and under­stand­ing between dif­fer­ent groups. 

Echo cham­bers can under­mine the demo­crat­ic pro­cess by cre­at­ing frag­men­ted pub­lics, each with its own ‘facts’ and inter­pret­a­tions, mak­ing con­sensus and col­lab­or­at­ive prob­lem-solv­ing increas­ingly challenging. 

“Echo cham­bers and epi­stem­ic bubbles are dis­tinct social epi­stem­ic phe­nom­ena, and address­ing them requires dis­tinct inter­ven­tions.”
Source: Episteme ¹⁷Nguyen, C. (2018). ECHO CHAMBERS AND EPISTEMIC BUBBLES. Episteme, 17, 141 — 161. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​7​/​e​p​i​.​2​0​1​8​.32

Learn more: Echo Chambers: Algorithmic Confirmation Bias

Walter Lippmann and Perception Management

In his sem­in­al work Public Opinion (1922), Walter Lippmann laid the intel­lec­tu­al ground­work for the idea that per­cep­tion and real­ity are not the same — a core prin­ciple of mod­ern per­cep­tion man­age­ment. ¹⁸Lippmann, Walter. 1960. Public Opinion (1922). New York: Macmillan.

Lippmann argued that:

Lippmann’s ideas res­on­ate deeply with per­cep­tion man­age­ment in pub­lic relations.

“We are all cap­tives of the pic­ture in our head — our belief that the world we have exper­i­enced is the world that really exists.”
— Walter Lippmann (1889 – 1974)

On Creating Pseudo-Environments

Lippmann coined the term “pseudo-envir­on­ment,” which describes the filtered, biased, and often arti­fi­cial ver­sion of real­ity presen­ted by the media. He warned that influ­en­tial elites could exploit this man­u­fac­tured real­ity to manip­u­late pub­lic thought and behaviour.

Lippmann was scep­tic­al about the public’s abil­ity to dis­cern real­ity from the pseudo-envir­on­ment, which raises eth­ic­al concerns:

Perception man­age­ment is not inher­ently sin­is­ter, but as Lippmann warned, it places immense power in the hands of those con­trolling the narrative. 

In essence, per­cep­tion man­age­ment is the applied PR ver­sion of Lippmann’s media cri­tique. It acknow­ledges that facts alone do not win pub­lic trust—prim­ing, fram­ing, storytelling, and emo­tion­al appeal do.

Learn more: Perception Management

Our Attention Is Not Well-Understood

Despite the grow­ing con­cern over the impact of social media and the fast-paced news cycle on our atten­tion spans, a gap in empir­ic­al data per­sists. This lack of con­crete evid­ence points to the neces­sity for more rig­or­ous research to under­stand the true extent of mass medi­a’s influ­ence on cog­nit­ive func­tions. ¹⁹Abundance of inform­a­tion nar­rows our col­lect­ive atten­tion span. (2019, April 15). EurekAlert! https://​www​.eurekalert​.org/​n​e​w​s​-​r​e​l​e​a​s​e​s​/​4​9​0​177

For busi­ness lead­ers, this calls for a cau­tious approach to con­clud­ing the impact of digit­al media on atten­tion spans. Rather than mak­ing hasty decisions based on anec­dot­al evid­ence, organ­isa­tion­al strategies must be based on sol­id research.

This could involve col­lab­or­at­ing with aca­dem­ic insti­tu­tions or invest­ing in in-house stud­ies to explore how digit­al media con­sump­tion affects employ­ee per­form­ance and con­sumer behaviour. 

In an era where data-driv­en decision-mak­ing is para­mount, filling this empir­ic­al gap will help devel­op more effect­ive busi­ness strategies and con­trib­ute to a broad­er under­stand­ing of per­cep­tion management.