What's interesting is that the process of identifying what gets human attention is nothing new.
e.g. cartoons from the 1950s were designed to have:
- cute animals
- short and fast scene cuts
- catchy music
b/c all three of the above were known to trick the human brain into "sit still and observe" mode.
Focus groups did the same thing for advertising which then morphed into A/B testing to determine revealed preferences.
Same thing with the whole fat/salt/sugar research that led to near addictive fast food.
This is just the next logical step.