Digital Trust 2025 (Dataset, n = 505)

Dataset availability: Participant-level dataset files are temporarily unavailable while Human Clarity Institute completes an independent privacy and data governance review. Metadata, methodology and citation information remain available. Researchers interested in access may contact info@humanclarityinstitute.com. Version v3.0 – Documentation & Governance Update This release includes a series of documentation, governance and public dataset standardisation improvements supporting the ongoing maintenance of the Human Clarity Institute's open research library. Changes in this release include: Strengthened public dataset de-identification procedures Updated README documentation and public release guidance Updated data dictionary reflecting the current public variable structure Standardised demographic disclosure controls where appropriate Removal of geographic and participant free-text variables from the public release New SHA-256 checksums for all released files These updates improve the consistency, documentation and governance of the public dataset while preserving its research value and maintaining compatibility with the broader HCI dataset library. This version also includes: Canonical snake_case file naming Upgraded README aligned with HCI documentation standards Human Reference Layer (HRL) and Construct Registry alignment Standardised data dictionary structure This dataset is part of the Human Clarity Institute’s AI–Human Experience 2025 data series. It examines digital trust, authenticity judgement, and uncertainty in an AI-saturated information environment, including perceived manipulation risk, confidence in detecting synthetic content, and behaviours triggered by doubt or ambiguity. The dataset includes:• validated 1–7 Likert-scale items• measures of trustworthiness assessment, uncertainty effects, and detection confidence• behavioural indicators of verification habits, caution, and avoidance• multi-select variables stored as canonical semicolon-delimited snake_case tokens• open-text reflections with minimal safe cleaning (trim + newline removal only)• demographic variables across six English-speaking countries• digital life exposure (daily hours online) and AI-tool usage frequency Data were collected on 25 November 2025 via Prolific from adults in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland.All data were cleaned, anonymised, and processed under the Human Clarity Institute’s machine-readable dataset protocol, which includes: • canonical snake_case variable naming• validated numeric ranges• standardised multi-select formats• minimal safe text cleaning• full alignment with the accompanying data dictionary• removal of Prolific IDs and timestamps• SHA-256 checksums for all files This dataset contributes to understanding how people judge trustworthiness and navigate uncertainty in an AI-shaped digital ecosystem, supporting longitudinal tracking of authenticity perception, online doubt, verification behaviour, and the evolving cognitive relationship between humans and AI.