Purpose: Today, Collaborative information seeking behavior has been an issue of concern to many researchers and is
considered necessary to meet the information needs and solve problems that are difficult and complex for individuals. The
purpose of this study is to identify the impact of trust on collaborative information seeking behaviors of postgraduate students
of Shiraz University.
Method: The present study is quantitative in terms of the nature of the data and descriptive-correlational in terms of the
data collection method. The statistical population included all graduate students of Shiraz University in 1399, and the sample
consisted of 302 students from different faculties who were selected based on Morgan table. Data collection was carried out
through two questionnaires. The first questionnaire measured the tendency to collaborative information seeking behavior, which
was made through studying the texts related to the field of collaborative information seeking behavior, and by extracting related
items. Furthermore, the questionnaire of Costa and Anderson (2011) was used to measure the level of trust. In order to measure
the validity of the form and content of the questionnaires, the opinions of seven experts in information science and epistemology
were used. The reliability of the collaborative information seeking behavior questionnaire using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient
with a value of 0.91 and the reliability of the trust questionnaire for the subcomponents of trust, i.e. the tendency to trust, perceived trustworthiness, cooperative behaviors and monitoring behaviors, were obtained 0.78, 88. 0, 0.87 and 0.70 respectively.
Findings: The results of this research provided further evidence that the tendency to collaborative information seeking
behavior can be predicted by the variable of trust (40. 5%). Among the sub-components of trust, the perceived trustworthiness
sub-component had the greatest effect (32. 9%) on the tendency to collaborative information seeking behavior, followed by
cooperative behaviors (31.8 %) and the propensity to trust (9 %), are placed. Indeed, in addition to its positive effects, trust can
also lead to negative effects; In other words, higher levels of trust do not necessarily encourage cooperation because complete
trust makes people rely on others and no longer have control over the work process or create a field for others to abuse.
Originality/value: Despite the potential for trust in predicting collaborative activities, no research has been conducted to
examine the role of trust in collaborative information seeking behaviors. The results of the research can lead to a better understanding of the factors affecting collaborative information seeking behaviors. The results of this study will also help all researchers, professors and managers to identify important sub-components of trust, to strengthen and improve these sub-components,
and facilitate the desire for collaborative information-seeking behavior