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Sökmotorer eller AI-chattbottar: En studie om studenters informationssökning, tillit och källkritik
University of Borås, Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT.
University of Borås, Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT.
2026 (Swedish)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesisAlternative title
Search Engines or AI Chatbots : A Study of Students’ Information Seeking, Trust and Source Evaluation (English)
Abstract [en]

The rapid development of generative AI has fundamentally changed how information is produced and consumed, particularly in higher education. This study examines how university students in Sweden use and experience search engines and AI chatbots in their information seeking, with a focus on trust, credibility, and source evaluation. Using a qualitative research design, six semi-structured interviews were conducted with undergraduate students at Uppsala University and Umeå University. The material was analyzed through thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke (2006), resulting in three themes: conditional trust, feeling and plausibility as a basis for evaluation, and individual responsibility with ambivalence. The findings show that students do not passively accept information from either search engines or AI chatbots, but actively negotiate their trust through individual strategies. However, when formal markers of credibility are absent such as an identifiable author or traceable source, students tend to rely on feeling and perceived plausibility rather than systematic evaluation. The study concludes that students' source criticism is not a matter of lacking competence, but rather a rational adaptation to information environments where the tools themselves limit the possibilities for evaluating information critically. The results contribute to research on information literacy in the age of generative AI.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2026.
Keywords [sv]
Generativ AI, Sökmotorer, Informationssökning, Tillit, Kognitiv auktoritet, Källkritik, Informationslitteracitet
National Category
Information Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-35962OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hb-35962DiVA, id: diva2:2087510
Subject / course
Library and Information Science
Available from: 2026-07-28 Created: 2026-07-21 Last updated: 2026-07-28Bibliographically approved

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Sökmotorer eller AI-chattbottar Holmqvist Dilan(803 kB)16 downloads
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3132333435363734 of 69
CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf