What makes answers trustworthy
Our analysis
Trust is driven by presentation quality and social proof, not authority. Well-organized content (59%) and high engagement metrics — upvotes, likes, views (48%) — top the list, ahead of personal referral from a trusted human (47%) and citability/trackable origin (40%).
Question
What makes you trust the information you find when you are searching for answers? Select your top 3 choices.
- multi select
- Optional
- v2026.1
Data
| Respondents | Percent | |
|---|---|---|
| The format and content of the information is well-organized and logical | 9,071 | 59.1% |
| There are many upvotes/likes/shares/views associated with the content | 7,377 | 48.0% |
| The information was referred to me by a human I trust directly | 7,159 | 46.6% |
| The information has many citations, sources themselves don't matter as much as the ability to track down the origin | 6,111 | 39.8% |
| I can see user activity associated with the human that posts the information I find | 3,890 | 25.3% |
| I heard about the source of information before from another trusted source, such as a news site, a social feed, or a podcast interview | 3,730 | 24.3% |
| The format and content of the information is creative and thought-provoking | 1,628 | 10.6% |
Use this data
Response data is released under the ODbL 1.0, which asks that you attribute it.
Structured for code, with the question, the year and the source url alongside the numbers.
A formatted table, ready to paste into a document, an issue or a prompt.
Spreadsheet
.csv is a plain text format which most spreadsheet software can open.