Eyes on the account size:Interactions between attention and budget in consumer choice*

The context surrounding a consumer decision, such as one's overall budget available for pur-chases, can exert a strong effect on the subjective value of a product. Across three eye-tracking studies, we explore the attentional processes through which budget size influences consumers' purchasing behavior. Higher budgets increased and sped up purchasing even when items were affordable at all budget sizes. Moreover, attention interacted with budget size to promote pur-chasing at higher budgets. Finally, individual differences in the magnitude of the budget effect related to attentional patterns: those whose decisions depended more on budget exhibited more budget-price transitions and less variability in search patterns compared to those whose decisions were less dependent on budget. These findings indicate that attention moderates the effect of budgets on purchasing decisions, allowing low budgets to serve as self-control devices and large budgets to generate impulse purchases

The Relentless, Outside Push: Why the Minnesota Legislature Defied Economics and Public Opinion to Fund Target Field

<p>Publicly financed stadium deals have soared to total over 100 instances on more than $30 billion over the past 20 years. Each year the American government spends half as much money on these PPP’s as it does on potential natural disaster relief, three times as much as it does on service member education benefits, and over ten times as much as it does on reading for disadvantaged elementary and secondary school students. The thing is, these deals do not make returns on their investments, at least economically, and as a result public opinion has grown increasingly hostile toward these deals. Secondly, though, stadiums are about more than just economics. They are about sports, entertainment, and civic pride. Legislators balance finances with emotion, personal conviction with broader consensus, and more often than not, they find themselves voting yes for a new ballpark. This paper explores the undercurrents below today’s record-high rate of stadium construction by focusing on Minnesota’s H.F. 2480 bill. After pushing for a decade, the Minnesota Twins landed approval for a new ballpark on May 26, 2006, ultimately putting taxpayers on the hook for 81$555 million capital and hidden costs. These were the same taxpayers, no less, who were strongly against a publicly financed stadiums, according to polls. </p> <p>The following research, using three hypotheses as guideposts, investigates why the Minnesota legislature agreed to fund Target Field. The first hypothesis revolves around the strength of stadium proponents–both teams and local leaders–in influencing politicians’ stance on a new ballpark. Another explanation suggests that regardless of the strength of outside influence, politicians voted the way they did due to the confines, as well as opportunities, of the formal political structure. Finally, a third consideration is whether specific leaders made unwavering pushes that both kept a stadium debate alive and garnered the necessary supporting votes to win the day.</p> <p>In determining which had the most significant effect, however, the paper begins with leading theories on the processes–rather than results–that are present in stadium deals across the country, shining a light on numerous urban politics and sports scholars’ work in the Literature Review. The Case and Evidence sections, through the three hypotheses, turn to and analyze the specific events that unfolded leading up H.F. 2480 and the evidence supporting these hypotheses. Finally, the paper concludes that the strength of outside influence–specifically on the part of the Twins organization, the media, businesses, and union allies–was the decisive factor in the approval of Target Field.</p>Winner, Ole R. Holsti Prize in Political Science and Public Policy, semester paper categor

Disentangling the roles of cue visibility and knowledge in adjusting cognitive control: A preregistered direct replication of the Farooqui and Manly (2015) study

This study has been accepted for publication: Bejjani, C., Dolgin, J., Zhang, Z., and Egner, T. (2020). Disentangling the roles of cue visibility and knowledge in adjusting cognitive control: A preregistered direct replication of the Farooqui and Manly (2015) study. Psychological Science, 31(4), 468-479. https://doi.org/10.1177/095679762090404