Situated Attention in Political Decision‐Making: A Theoretical Framework and Experimental Test of Politicians' Prioritization of Societal Challenges Across Policy Domains

ABSTRACT Prioritization between societal issues is a necessary component of political decision‐making at the helm of governance. The attention‐based view explains how performance below aspirations directs political attention to a singular policy domain, but leaves unaddressed how politicians prioritize between multiple performance shortfalls across policy domains. This article provides a framework and an experimental test of situated attention that explains how politicians prioritize between simultaneous societal issues across different policy domains. Our framework outlines how politicians rely on issue characteristics concerning importance (salient vs. non‐salient), problem‐definition (‘hard’ vs. ‘easy’), solution (i‐framed vs. s‐framed) and temporal scope (short‐term vs. long‐term). A discrete choice experiment utilizing a probability sample of 964 elected politicians is conducted to provide an empirical test, revealing that politicians are more likely to prioritize policy issues that are salient, ‘easy’, s‐framed and short‐term, as well as robustness of these effects across variation in political ideology. We conclude by discussing implications for an attention‐based understanding of political decision‐making in contemporary governance.