Trust in Online Information as a Predictor of Misinformation Vulnerability among University Students

The paper examines the connection between the internet use behavior and belief in internet sources of information and vulnerability to misinformation among college students. According to the analysis of the quantitative data, the research will identify how various levels of trust in the academic sources, news media, social media, blogs, and AI-generated content influence the levels of awareness of misinformation and verification behavior among the students. The findings indicate that the students are active internet users where majority of them spend 3-5 hours daily on the internet, most of the time reading social media, news and academic documents. The academic sources are considered to be highly trustworthy and the social media and blogs are considered to be less trustworthy. Medium trust in the AI-generated content and this is an increasing yet guarded acceptance of the new technologies. Despite having moderate confidence in recognizing false information, students, despite being highly aware of prevalence of misinformation, have certain difficulties in recognizing fake news. The correlation analysis shows that trust in AI and verification behavior is positively correlated, meaning that the students who trust AI tools are likely to check out information. However, the existence of negative relationship between the awareness of misinformation and the verification behavior indicates the lack of consistency between the knowledge and practice. Overall, the paper demonstrates the complexity of the relationship between trust, awareness, and behavioral responses online. Despite the general awareness of the misinformation and the tendency to act responsibly in the context of information exchange, the urgent need to improve the degree of digital literacy and critical assessment is evident. The implications of the results on the educational strategies are immense in the quest to improve the ability of students to evaluate the credibility of the information as well as to negotiate the ever-complex digital information landscape.