Unbalanced attention, exposure, and perceived influence of early displayed information in any series of choices in a given domain


New York University

Individuals’ tendency to prefer one piece of information if it is shown prior to others in a series of information. 
Can be immediate or delayed


Primacy Effect in Information Visualization

Daniel Feenberg, Ina Ganguli, Patrick Gaulé, Jonathan Gruber; It’s Good to Be First: Order Bias in Reading and Citing NBER Working Papers. The Review of Economics and Statistics 2017; 99 (1): 32–39. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00607

 It’s Good to Be First: Order Bias in Reading and Citing NBER Working Papers

Berger J. Does Presentation Order Impact Choice After Delay? Top Cogn Sci. 2016 Jul;8(3):670-84. doi: 10.1111/tops.12205. Epub 2016 May 11. PMID: 27170416.

Does Presentation Order Impact Choice After Delay? 

Articles and sections of articles that are at the beginning of a journal containing multiple articles are cited with greater frequency. 

Information presented early in an article may impact an individual's belief more than information presented later. 


Examples of Primacy Effect

Implication of Primacy Effect


Low motivation

Cognitive fatigue

Satisficing choices


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