College Students’ Perceptions of Quality, Veracity, and Source in Human-Written and AI-Generated News Articles

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Thursday 4:15pm
  In Poster Session: Research in Research and Literacy (SIG 11) Poster Session II

Abstract

The unprecedented growth of AI has made it difficult to distinguish between human- and AI-generated content. This study examined how college students perceived and evaluated factual and fake news articles written by humans vs. those generated by AI. The human-written (HW) group read articles written by humans and the AI-generated (AG) group read corresponding articles with identical headlines and first sentences generated by AI. Both groups rated each article’s quality, judged its veracity, and identified its source. Results showed no significant difference in perceived quality. Both groups struggled with source identification. Interestingly, HW group judged veracity more accurately than AG group. These findings suggest the need for caution in information acquisition and for digital literacy education.

Authors

• Goeun Na, Hanyang University

• Soo-hyun Im, Hanyang University