Credibility and Dynamics of Collective Attention

TL;DR

This study analyzes how the dynamics of collective attention on social media relate to the perceived credibility of reported events, revealing that sustained attention correlates with higher credibility while intermittent bursts indicate lower credibility.

Contribution

It introduces the first large-scale credibility database of Twitter messages and links attention dynamics to perceived credibility of real-world events.

Findings

Sustained attention correlates with higher perceived credibility.

Intermittent attention bursts are associated with lower credibility.

Attention dynamics can predict event credibility levels.

Abstract

Today, social media provide the means by which billions of people experience news and events happening around the world. However, the absence of traditional journalistic gatekeeping allows information to flow unencumbered through these platforms, often raising questions of veracity and credibility of the reported information. Here we ask: How do the dynamics of collective attention directed toward an event reported on social media vary with its perceived credibility? By examining the first large-scale, systematically tracked credibility database of public Twitter messages (47M messages corresponding to 1,138 real-world events over a span of three months), we established a relationship between the temporal dynamics of events reported on social media and their associated level of credibility judgments. Representing collective attention by the aggregate temporal signatures of an event reportage, we found that the amount of continued attention focused on an event provides information about its associated levels of perceived credibility. Events exhibiting sustained, intermittent bursts of attention were found to be associated with lower levels of perceived credibility. In other words, as more people showed interest during moments of transient collective attention, the associated uncertainty surrounding these events also increased.