Artemenko Elena, Zhitkova Anastasiia, Terpilowsky Maksim
Social and Cognitive Informatics Laboratory, HSE University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
Cogn Process. 2025 Apr 7. doi: 10.1007/s10339-025-01268-7.
The confirmation bias effect-a well-documented cognitive bias in decision-making-is widely discussed in the literature. It refers to the tendency for information to be perceived as more credible when it aligns with personal beliefs, and less credible when it does not. Several studies have demonstrated that confirmation bias is associated with an increase in cognitive load, primarily due to the discomfort caused by cognitive dissonance. Since previous research has established a relationship between cognitive load and oculomotor behaviours, such as eye blink rate, one approach to detect confirmation bias is through the analysis of these oculomotor correlates. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between confirmation bias effect, cognitive load and participants' eye movement activity. To investigate potential behavioural correlates, the laboratory eye-tracking experiment was conducted. Participants (N = 52, 1705 observations) read short social media text messages with different valence (approving and disapproving), which either matched or conflicted with their pre-existing attitudes toward the topic. All stimuli were counterbalanced. Eye blink rate was measured as the dependent variable. The results indicated that the confirmation bias effect was indeed associated with changes in oculomotor activity. Specifically, there was a significant increase in eye blink rate for stimuli that were incongruent with participants' beliefs, and a decrease in blink frequency for congruent stimuli.
证实性偏差效应——决策过程中一种有充分记录的认知偏差——在文献中得到了广泛讨论。它指的是，当信息与个人信念相符时，人们会觉得它更可信，而当信息与个人信念不符时，人们会觉得它可信度较低。多项研究表明，证实性偏差与认知负荷的增加有关，主要是由于认知失调所带来的不适。由于先前的研究已经确立了认知负荷与眼动行为（如眨眼频率）之间的关系，检测证实性偏差的一种方法是通过分析这些眼动相关因素。本研究旨在探讨证实性偏差效应、认知负荷与参与者眼动活动之间的关系。为了研究潜在的行为相关因素，进行了实验室眼动追踪实验。参与者（N = 52，1705次观察）阅读了具有不同效价（赞成和反对）的简短社交媒体短信，这些短信与他们对该主题预先存在的态度相符或冲突。所有刺激均进行了平衡处理。眨眼频率作为因变量进行测量。结果表明，证实性偏差效应确实与眼动活动的变化有关。具体而言，与参与者信念不一致的刺激的眨眼频率显著增加，而与信念一致的刺激的眨眼频率则降低。
