ArticlePloS one2026
The limited effects of social media use on misperceptions Social media's limited role in misperceptions.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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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.
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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.
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0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social media use has the potential to promote misperceptions, but evidence is mixed. Despite social media characteristics that include homophilous social networks, algorithms that can reinforce biases, and social bots that promote falsehoods, there is no evidence of a strong association between social media use and misperceptions. This project offers the strongest empirical test of this relation to date, providing additional evidence of the minimal effects of social media use on misperceptions. Data come from two independent large-N panel studies, each paired with online tracking data, one focused on the 2020 election and the other on the COVID-19 pandemic. Within-between regression models show that social media use was not associated with a statistically significant decline in Americans' ability to discriminate between true and false claims on any of the four platforms examined-Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
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Registered trials
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.