What Do People Attend to When Searching for Information on the Web: An Eye-Tracking Study

The perceived credibility of information plays a major role in information selection and influence (Metzger & Flanagin, 2015). Accordingly, past research has examined people's information selection and their decision outcomes, in both web and social media environments (e.g., Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015; Winter & Kramer, 2012). Yet, in spite of this research, the specific processes of people's information selection and credibility assessment are not fully understood. To better specify credibility evaluation behaviors, we employed eye-tracking methods as a means to determine precisely which web page cues (i.e., author, introduction, short advance summary, social media information, pro & con arguments, peer comments, poll on the topic) people attend to as they form opinions about web site credibility. Additionally, we induced participants' information search motivations (i.e., accuracy, defense, impression motivation, or a control). 87 participants in our study viewed a web page for 3.5 minutes while their eye movements were tracked. Think-aloud techniques and post-hoc credibility ratings were used to assess their approaches. Surprisingly, although author information has been shown to have an important impact on both selection and credibility assessment (Winter & Kramer, 2012), results showed that it is consulted last. Primary attention is given to arguments on the web page, and the introduction and short advance summary. Social information appears to be less relevant. Moreover, there is no correlation between duration of browsing various cues and credibility assessment. Also, the patterns of observation are not dependent on information search motivations.