Misplaced trust? The relationship between trust, ability to identify commercially influenced results, and search engine preference

TL;DR

This study investigates how limited knowledge about search engines influences user trust and preferences, revealing that less informed users overly trust Google despite poor ability to evaluate results, highlighting the need for improved information literacy.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence linking search engine knowledge, trust, and preferences, emphasizing the importance of user education for better search result evaluation.

Findings

Less knowledgeable users trust Google more.

Trust does not correlate with ability to evaluate results.

Promoting information literacy can improve user trust and understanding.

Abstract

People have a high level of trust in search engines, especially Google, but only limited knowledge of them, as numerous studies have shown. This leads to the question: To what extent is this trust justified considering the lack of familiarity among users with how search engines work and the business models they are founded on? We assume that trust in Google, search engine preferences, and knowledge of result types are interrelated. To examine this assumption, we conducted a representative online survey with n = 2,012 German internet users. We show that users with little search engine knowledge are more likely to trust and use Google than users with more knowledge. A contradiction revealed itself - users strongly trust Google, yet they are unable to adequately evaluate search results. This may be problematic since it can potentially affect knowledge acquisition. Consequently, there is a need to promote user information literacy to create a more solid foundation for user trust in search engines.