Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Trust Deficit and Cognitive Restructuring: An Analysis of the Impact of AIGC Visual News on the Public Trust System

Yufei WuDalian University of Technology*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) is reshaping the ecology of social media and even online media with unprecedented authenticity and generation efficiency. As AI text-image and video generation technologies mature, AIGC visual news has achieved a deceptive level of authenticity, continuously blurring the line between fact and fiction. As a special information form relying on authenticity and public trust, the impact of AIGC visual news on the public trust system urgently requires in-depth exploration. Therefore, this study collects public evaluations and attitudes toward AIGC visual news from news platforms and social media, quantitatively analyzes public trust levels, and systematically explores its mechanism of action on the public trust system. The results show that AIGC visual news has triggered a significant trust deficit, whose crisis mainly stems from multiple factors such as the subversion of individual cognitive frameworks, the collapse of traditional trust foundations, and the low-cost abuse of technology. This influence has a two-sided nature, on the one hand, it weakens the traditional principles of trust; on the other hand, it compels the society to start the process of cognitive restructuring to facilitate the creation of a more reasonable and transparent trust mechanism.

Keywords: AIGC; visual news; public trust system; trust deficit; cognitive restructuring
Published: March 9, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.HT32074
Volume: CHR Vol.104
pp. 147-154
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