Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH BRIEFINGS

Online search results can increase belief in misinformation

To counter misinformation, people are often advised to check the truth of claims by searching online. Five experiments show that this can actually increase people’s belief that false or misleading articles are true, an effect that might be driven by low-quality search results.

This is a summary of: Aslett, K. et al. Online searches to evaluate misinformation can increase its perceived veracity. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06883-y (2023).

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03665-4

Figure 1 is published under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

References

  1. Dutton, W. H., Reisdorf, B., Dubois, E. & Blank, G. Quello Center Working Paper 5-1-17 (2017).

  2. Golebiewski, M. & boyd, d. Data Voids: Where Missing Data Can Easily Be Exploited (Data & Society, 2019).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Breakstone, J. et al. Harv. Kennedy Sch. Misinformation Rev. 2, 1–17 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links