Reader Engagement with Social Media Posts: Visual Attention, Epistemic Emotions, and Recognition Memory

Rumors and misinformation spread rapidly on social media, often with negative consequences. Understanding the cognitive and emotional processes involved in reading social media content is crucial for designing strategies to curb misinformation. We conducted two experiments to examine how personal stance and the presentation format of controversial information influence emotional responses, attention allocation, and memory for the information presented in social media discussions. Participants read statements supporting or opposing topics (e.g., trans rights, vegan diet, nuclear energy), presented either as blocked (all same-side statements are presented together) or in an interleaved condition (supporting and opposing arguments are interleaved). Reading behavior was tracked using mouse-tracking (Experiment 1) and eye-tracking (Experiment 2). Epistemic emotions were assessed after each conversation, and memory was tested in a recognition task. Results showed that interleaving opposing statements enhanced reprocessing compared to blocked presentation. Additionally, when readers held a strong personal stance, mixed-format presentations induced greater anxiety, frustration, and confusion. The present study provides valuable insights into the effects of presentation format and personal stance on participants' reading behavior, emotional responses and memory. Understanding these effects can contribute to the development of effective communication strategies to improve engagement with controversial information and mitigate misinformation more effectively.