Exploring the utility of eye tracking for sociological research on race.

One part of the social construction of race is the symbolic association of given physical features with different races. This research note explores the utility of eye tracking for sociological research on racial perception, that is, for determining what race someone 'looks like.' Results reveal that participants gave greatest attention to targets' hair. This was especially so when targets of all races had straight hair or when a target identified as Black/White mixed-race. The mixed-race results in particular provide physiological evidence of the theory of multiracial dissection. We conclude by suggesting that eye tracking can be useful to sociologists by revealing subconscious tendencies and biases which, once identified, can be consciously addressed in service to reducing social disparities.

Use of bot and content flags to limit the spread of misinformation among social networks: a behavior and attitude survey.

The COVID-19 infodemic is driven partially by Twitter bots. Flagging bot accounts and the misinformation they share could provide one strategy for preventing the spread of false information online. This article reports on an experiment (N = 299) conducted with participants in the USA to see whether flagging tweets as coming from bot accounts and as containing misinformation can lower participants' self-reported engagement and attitudes about the tweets. This experiment also showed participants tweets that aligned with their previously held beliefs to determine how flags affect their overall opinions. Results showed that flagging tweets lowered participants' attitudes about them, though this effect was less pronounced in participants who frequently used social media or consumed more news, especially from Facebook or Fox News. Some participants also changed their opinions after seeing the flagged tweets. The results suggest that social media companies can flag suspicious or inaccurate content as a way to fight misinformation. Flagging could be built into future automated fact-checking systems and other misinformation abatement strategies of the social network analysis and mining community.