Behavioural preference for Google and ChatGPT in an online search task.
The advent of readily accessible Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms, such as ChatGPT, has increased uncertainty, and in education, raised concerns about plagiarism and other negative behaviours. Most previous research, however, has relied on self-report to measure student use of AI, rather than...
| Published in: | Behaviour & Information Technology Vol. 45; no. 9; pp. 1829 - 1842 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jun2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=194088542&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 194088542 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 0144929X B6Q jtl: Behaviour & Information Technology issn: 0144929X maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Jun2026 vid: 45 iid: 9 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 194088542 188170542 194088542 194088542 10.1080/0144929X.2025.2560549 194088542 ppf: 1829 ppct: 13 formats: tig: atl: Behavioural preference for Google and ChatGPT in an online search task. aug: au: Healy, Kylee Radell, Milen L. affil: Department of Psychology, Niagara University, Lewiston, NY, USA sug: subj: Web Search Engines Chatbot Internet Searching Decision Making Task Performance and Analysis Behavior Students, College Student Attitudes Evaluation Human Male Female Adolescence Adult Middle Age Comparative Studies Personality Uncertainty User-Computer Interface Attitude to Computers Technology New England Power Analysis Confidence Intervals Chi Square Test Multiple Logistic Regression Multiple Linear Regression Mann-Whitney U Test Kruskal-Wallis Test Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Software Adolescent: 13-18 years Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Male Female ab: The advent of readily accessible Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms, such as ChatGPT, has increased uncertainty, and in education, raised concerns about plagiarism and other negative behaviours. Most previous research, however, has relied on self-report to measure student use of AI, rather than observing actual behaviour. This preregistered study compared how 55 college students use a traditional internet search platform (Google) to how they use AI (ChatGPT) to complete an online search task with well- and ill-defined questions. Additionally, it examined whether preference was related to personality traits indicative of the tendency to explore novel experiences, including intolerance of uncertainty and personal expansion. It was hypothesised that students will prefer to use Google over ChatGPT, in particular when they are more intolerant of uncertainty. Contrary to this hypothesis, significantly more participants preferred to use ChatGPT, but only for the ill-defined question. There was no preference when responding to the well-defined questions, and no evidence that personality or previous experience with the platforms were related to preference. However, students with higher intolerance of uncertainty were more likely to have used ChatGPT in the past, suggesting that this trait may help predict the tendency to learn about and use new technology. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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