TikToking in the name of science
What makes young people susceptible to misinformation? And how do their friends influence this? Psychologist Jiemiao Chen aims to find out by using eye-tracking to monitor where young people focus their attention while watching TikTok videos.
Young people spend an average of 6.5 hours a day on their smartphones, including several hours on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Yet their critical thinking skills are not fully developed, making them more vulnerable to the effects of misinformation—for instance, following risky cosmetic trends or adopting extreme viewpoints. Strengthening their resilience to misinformation is therefore essential. To do so, we must first understand which factors lead them to consider online information credible or, conversely, unreliable.
Eye tracking
‘Strikingly, most research in this area focuses onadults, with far less work examining teenagers,’ explains Jiemiao Chen. She has been a researcher at the Institute of Psychology since 2017. As a PhD candidate, she previously used eye-tracking technology to study eye contact in social anxiety. For her new project—part of a larger research programme on misinformation led by developmental psychologist Ili Ma—Chen is taking the eye-tracking equipment off the shelf once again. This time, she will investigate where young people direct their attention while watching TikTok videos.
Attention
Chen’s study consists of two parts, each involving two groups: around fifty teenagers aged 15 to 17, and fifty young adults aged 20 to 25. In the first part, participants watch TikTok videos while an eye-tracking bar placed beneath the screen records their eye movements—and thus their attention. The TikTok feed covers a variety of topics and channels that adolescents encounter in their daily use
‘We examine which elements of the videos attract the most attention, and how this relates to perceived credibility. To what extent do they agree with the content? Does it matter whether the emotional tone is positive or negative? And how willing are they to share the video with others?’
Influence of friends
In the second part of the study, participants’ friends join in to explore the effects of peer presence. ‘Here we look at the impact of their presence: at what moments do participants look at their friend during the video? And how does this influence the way they evaluate the video?’
Digital resilience
Ultimately, Chen and her colleagues hope to use the insights gained to develop interventions that strengthen the digital resilience of teenagers and young adults. For now, Chen—who is originally from China—is still in the preparatory phase of the project. This includes many hours spent sifting through Dutch-language TikTok videos. ‘Quite a challenge. But fortunately, I’m also learning Dutch now, so that helps.’
Over dit onderzoek
The project Tracking Adolescents' Susceptibility to Misinformation in the Digital Age is carried out by Jiemaio Chen, in collaboration with Ili Ma, Esther van de Bos and Zsuzsika Sjoerds. It is funded by the AXA Research Fund.