6533b838fe1ef96bd12a4456
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Selective attention in the news feed: An eye-tracking study on the perception and selection of political news posts on Facebook
Michael SülflowStephan WinterSvenja Schäfersubject
Sociology and Political ScienceCommunicationmedia_common.quotation_subjectSource credibility05 social sciences050801 communication & media studiesAdvertising0506 political sciencePolitics0508 media and communicationsPerception050602 political science & public administrationSelection (linguistics)Eye trackingSelective attentionPsychologymedia_commondescription
Social networking sites such as Facebook are becoming increasingly important as a source for news. However, few studies have investigated what drives attention to content within the news feed and what influences the selection of news posts. We hypothesized that attitude consistency, the credibility of a source, and comments of other users raise interest in a news post in the news feed and influence the selection decision. A 2 × 2 × 2 laboratory experiment ( N = 103) using eye-tracking measurement showed that attitude consistency did not influence attention distribution in the news feed, but users preferred to select news posts with content reinforcing their attitudes. Participants spent more time with news posts from sources with high credibility and selected them more frequently. Comments were not relevant for selection but were for attention within the news feed: If the news post and the comment did not share the same opinion, readers spent more time reading the content.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-09-03 | New Media & Society |