Understanding the Role of Attention to Misinformation and Correction Mechanisms on Social Media with Eye‐Tracking Technology

This chapter argues that studying attention to misinformation and its correction messages on social media should be the first reasonable step to further parse how this understudied cognitive process might influence their ability to shape related (mis)perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. Eye-tracking is a technology that uses nearly infrared light to identify people's attention to stimuli with to a less than a millisecond of precision. Eye-tracking research examined understudied information-processing or attention mechanisms when individuals reviewed misinformation and correction messages on social media. People's attention paths were consistent with left-to-right and top-to-bottom viewing patterns when reading the social media messages. Understanding how people allocate their attention, the most valuable commodity on social media, is of critical importance in developing best practices in responding to and mitigating harmful climate change misinformation.