---
title: "Signals of trustworthy information — Knowledge data 2026"
url: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data/trust-reason
year: 2026
chapter: "knowledge"
question: "TrustReason"
section: "Knowledge sources and trust"
licence: "ODbL 1.0 (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/)"
---

# Signals of trustworthy information

Recency (72.6%) and authority (60%) beat attribution and peer validation as trust signals.

Asked as: When deciding whether to rely on work-related information, which signals matter most to you? Select up to 5. (`TrustReason`, multi select, optional, v2026.1)

## Options offered

1. It is recent or clearly up to date
2. It is marked final, approved, accepted, or official
3. It is not marked draft, outdated, deprecated, or superseded
4. I know who created or owns it
5. It comes from an official or trusted source
6. It was reviewed or validated by a subject matter expert
7. It includes sources, citations, links, or supporting evidence
8. It is consistent with other trusted information
9. Other people on my team use or endorse it
10. It is clear, complete, and easy to understand
11. It respects access, privacy, or permission rules
12. None of these
13. Not sure

## Results

### All Respondents

n = 12,996

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| It is recent or clearly up to date | 9,435 | 72.6% |
| It comes from an official or trusted source | 7,799 | 60.0% |
| It is consistent with other trusted information | 5,967 | 45.9% |
| It is clear, complete, and easy to understand | 5,540 | 42.6% |
| I know who created or owns it | 4,946 | 38.1% |
| It includes sources, citations, links, or supporting evidence | 4,887 | 37.6% |
| It is marked final, approved, accepted, or official | 3,960 | 30.5% |
| Other people on my team use or endorse it | 3,212 | 24.7% |
| It was reviewed or validated by a subject matter expert | 3,161 | 24.3% |
| It is not marked draft, outdated, deprecated, or superseded | 2,281 | 17.6% |
| It respects access, privacy, or permission rules | 1,169 | 9.0% |
| Not sure | 411 | 3.2% |
| None of these | 115 | 0.9% |

### Daily AI Users

n = 7,942

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| It is recent or clearly up to date | 5,968 | 75.1% |
| It comes from an official or trusted source | 4,667 | 58.8% |
| It is consistent with other trusted information | 3,503 | 44.1% |
| It is clear, complete, and easy to understand | 3,431 | 43.2% |
| I know who created or owns it | 3,075 | 38.7% |
| It includes sources, citations, links, or supporting evidence | 2,895 | 36.5% |
| It is marked final, approved, accepted, or official | 2,572 | 32.4% |
| Other people on my team use or endorse it | 2,104 | 26.5% |
| It was reviewed or validated by a subject matter expert | 1,868 | 23.5% |
| It is not marked draft, outdated, deprecated, or superseded | 1,436 | 18.1% |
| It respects access, privacy, or permission rules | 608 | 7.7% |
| Not sure | 221 | 2.8% |
| None of these | 60 | 0.8% |

### Weekly AI Users

n = 1,866

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| It is recent or clearly up to date | 1,359 | 72.8% |
| It comes from an official or trusted source | 1,185 | 63.5% |
| It is consistent with other trusted information | 918 | 49.2% |
| It is clear, complete, and easy to understand | 781 | 41.9% |
| I know who created or owns it | 702 | 37.6% |
| It includes sources, citations, links, or supporting evidence | 704 | 37.7% |
| It is marked final, approved, accepted, or official | 548 | 29.4% |
| Other people on my team use or endorse it | 489 | 26.2% |
| It was reviewed or validated by a subject matter expert | 469 | 25.1% |
| It is not marked draft, outdated, deprecated, or superseded | 325 | 17.4% |
| It respects access, privacy, or permission rules | 193 | 10.3% |
| Not sure | 56 | 3.0% |
| None of these | 12 | 0.6% |

### Monthly/Infrequent AI Users

n = 545

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| It is recent or clearly up to date | 359 | 65.9% |
| It comes from an official or trusted source | 348 | 63.9% |
| It is consistent with other trusted information | 278 | 51.0% |
| It is clear, complete, and easy to understand | 239 | 43.9% |
| I know who created or owns it | 198 | 36.3% |
| It includes sources, citations, links, or supporting evidence | 214 | 39.3% |
| It is marked final, approved, accepted, or official | 155 | 28.4% |
| Other people on my team use or endorse it | 113 | 20.7% |
| It was reviewed or validated by a subject matter expert | 139 | 25.5% |
| It is not marked draft, outdated, deprecated, or superseded | 111 | 20.4% |
| It respects access, privacy, or permission rules | 59 | 10.8% |
| Not sure | 14 | 2.6% |
| None of these | 5 | 0.9% |

In context: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data.md