Zachary Wojtowicz

(why-toe-vitch)

Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Economics & HBS

Ph.D. in Behavioral Economics,

M.A. in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University

I am a behavioral economist who focuses on the intersection of “minds, markets, and machines”: the evolving relationship between human psychology and information technology in the context of modern work and life. My research seeks to uncover how limited attention and other cognitive frictions impact the structure of organizations, digital platforms, and other institutions. I apply these insights to study the implications of artificial intelligence and other emerging digital technologies.

Working Papers

Context and Communication

Model Diversity and Dynamic Belief Formation

Boredom and Flow: An Opportunity Cost Theory of Motivational Attention

With Nick Chater and George Loewenstein

Peer-Reviewed Publications

The Economics of Attention

With George Loewenstein. Forthcoming at The Journal of Economic Literature, 2025

Push and Pull: A Framework for Measuring Attentional Agency on Digital Platforms

With Shrey Jain and Nicholas Vincent. Forthcoming at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 2025

Undermining Mental Proof: How AI Can Make Cooperation Harder by Making Thinking Easier

With Simon DeDeo. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2025