Events

A decision maker acquires and processes information about an uncertain state of nature through an inquiry|a contingent sequence of questions culminating in a decision. Inquiries are costly, with costs proportional to their length. We characterize optimal inquiries and uncover two behavioral implications of costly inquiry: attention span reduction (favoring shorter inquiries by deprioritizing some decisions or excluding them from consideration) and confirmation bias (seeking evidence to confirm prior guesses of optimal decisions). Our framework provides a rational foundation to prominent cognitive biases, such as framing and search satisficing in healthcare, and tunnel vision in criminal investigations.