Users rely on search engines for information in critical contexts, such as public health emergencies. Understanding how users evaluate the trustworthiness of search results is therefore essential. Research has identified rank and the presence of misinformation as factors impacting perceptions and click behavior in search. Here, we elaborate on these findings by measuring the effects of rank and misinformation, as well as warning banners, on the perceived trustworthiness of individual results in search. We conducted three online experiments (N=3196) using Covid-19-related queries to address this question. We show that although higher-ranked results are clicked more often, they are not more trusted. We also show that misinformation did not change trust in accurate results below it. However, a warning about unreliable sources backfired, decreasing trust in accurate information but not misinformation. This work addresses concerns about how people evaluate information in search, and illustrates the dangers of generic prevention approaches.

翻译：用户依赖搜索引擎获取关键情境中的信息，例如公共卫生突发事件。因此，理解用户如何评估搜索结果的可信度至关重要。已有研究指出，排名和错误信息的存在是影响用户对搜索结果感知和点击行为的因素。本文通过衡量排名、错误信息及警告横幅对搜索结果中单个结果感知可信度的影响，进一步丰富了这些发现。我们围绕新冠疫情相关查询开展了三项在线实验（N=3196）以探究此问题。结果表明，虽然排名较高的结果被点击次数更多，但并未获得更高的信任度。同时，错误信息并未降低其下方准确信息的信任度。然而，针对不可靠来源的警告产生了反效果：它降低了准确信息的信任度，却未影响错误信息。本研究回应了关于用户如何在搜索中评估信息的担忧，并揭示了通用预防策略的潜在风险。