In this study we examined the influence of attitude strength on the
processing and evaluation of sources and information on the Web.
Seventy-nine German university students participated in an eye-tracking
study in which they read information from eight pre-selected websites
from different sources on the controversial topic of organic foods.
Results showed that participants who felt strongly about the topic
(i.e., those with strong prior attitude strength) scrutinized website
logos of attitude-inconsistent websites shorter and judged the
credibility of attitude-inconsistent websites lower. They also included
more attitude-consistent information in an essay task than participants
with weaker prior attitudes. Participants who felt less strongly about
the topic (i.e., those with weaker prior attitudes) fixated longer on
text from attitude-inconsistent websites than from attitude-consistent
websites. By contrast, for participants with strong prior attitudes the
time spent on the texts from attitude-consistent websites and
attitude-inconsistent websites did not differ significantly. The results
show that prior attitudes can bias evaluation and processing of
information in different ways. Even though participants were not fully
biased during initial information processing, they were so when
evaluating the information and presenting it in an essay task.