Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40494900›Full record

ArticleNature human behaviour2025

Using co-sharing to identify use of mainstream news for promoting potentially misleading narratives.

Pranav Goel, Jon Green, David Lazer, Philip S Resnik

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Nature human behaviour, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Pranav GoelNetwork Science Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA. p.goel@northeastern.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1037-2687
Jon GreenDepartment of Political Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
David LazerNetwork Science Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7991-9110
Philip S ResnikDepartment of Linguistics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6130-8602

Funding

National Science Foundation (NSF) 2008761National Science Foundation (NSF) 2031736William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (William & Flora Hewlett Foundation) 2019-9224
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Much of the research quantifying volume and spread of online misinformation measures the construct at the source level, identifying a set of specific unreliable domains that account for a relatively small share of news consumption. This source-level dichotomy obscures the potential for users to repurpose factually true information from reliable sources to advance misleading narratives. We demonstrate this potentially far more prevalent form of misinformation by identifying articles from reliable sources that are frequently co-shared with (shared by users who also shared) 'fake' news on social media, and concurrently extracting narratives present in fake news content and claims fact checked as false. Specifically in this study, we use Twitter/X data from May 2018 to November 2021 matched to a US voter file. We find that narratives present in misinformation content are significantly more likely to occur in co-shared articles than in articles from the same reliable sources that are not co-shared, consistent with users using information from mainstream sources to enhance the credibility and reach of potentially misleading claims.

Indexed as

CommunicationDeceptionInformation DisseminationNarrationSocial MediaHumans

Identifiers

PMID40494900

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.