Attention-Based Design and User Decisions on Information Sharing: A Thematic Literature Review

The spread of misinformation and disinformation online can do serious damage to individuals, organizations, and society in general. To fully comprehend user interaction when sharing information online, we need to examine why users decide to share misinformation without attentive behavior and how the latest attention-based design approach can address this. We investigate and represent knowledge based on Human-Computer Interaction by applying an ontological approach through a thematic literature review to describe a clearly coherent and well-defined pattern about the relationship between attention-based design and user decisions on information sharing. We conducted a review to collect, examine, and synthesize outputs of previous studies, mixing both forward and backward search strategies. Three key themes we identified include attention-based design, attentive behavior for information sharing, and attention-based design on information sharing. The review interpreted that, (1) attention-based design is significantly related to user decisions on information sharing, and a better understanding of the link between these is not yet properly described, (2) attention-based design has a further influence on increasing task effectiveness when users are dealing with a task where they are more focused and aware, (3) attention-based design, including selective attention, can influence user decisions, especially in completing tasks that emphasize a visual-based approach, (4) attention-based design is an indispensable feature to increase user attention when sharing information on the omnipresence of social media, and (5) psychological factors such as social influences, epistemic belief and cognitive dissonance affect user decisions when sharing information.