Connect with timely, peer-reviewed research about misinformation. Subscribe to the HKS Misinformation Review newsletter to receive our issues bi-monthly and other news from the community. The HKS Misinformation Review is an open access publication.

Research Note

Attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines may have “spilled over” to other, unrelated vaccines along party lines in the United States

Mark LaCour and Zebulon Bell

This study used data from pre- and post-COVID surveys to examine vaccine attitudes in the United States. We found evidence consistent with an ideological “spillover” effect: Liberals’ attitudes became more positive towards non-COVID vaccines (flu, MMR, HPV, chickenpox) and conservatives’ attitudes became more negative.

Keep Reading

How do social media users and journalists express concerns about social media misinformation? A computational analysis

Jianing Li and Michael W. Wagner

This article describes partisan-based, accuracy-based, and action-based discussions through which U.S. social media users and journalists express concerns about social media misinformation. While platform policy stands out as the most highly discussed topic by both social media users and journalists, much of it is cast through a party politics lens.

Keep Reading
Research Note

Taking the power back: How diaspora community organizations are fighting misinformation spread on encrypted messaging apps

Joao V. S. Ozawa, Samuel Woolley and Josephine Lukito

We applied a mixed-methods approach with the goal of understanding how Latinx and Asian diaspora communities perceive and experience the spread of misinformation through encrypted messaging apps in the United States. Our study consists of 12 in-depth interviews with leaders of relevant diaspora community organizations and a computer-assisted content analysis of 450,300 messages published on Telegram between July 2020 and December 2021.

Keep Reading

Who reports witnessing and performing corrections on social media in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and France?

Rongwei Tang, Emily K. Vraga, Leticia Bode and Shelley Boulianne

Observed corrections of misinformation on social media can encourage more accurate beliefs, but for these benefits to occur, corrections must happen. By exploring people’s perceptions of witnessing and performing corrections on social media, we find that many people say they observe and perform corrections across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and France.

Keep Reading

The spread of synthetic media on X

Giulio Corsi, Bill Marino and Willow Wong

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) models have introduced new complexities and risks to information environments, as synthetic media may facilitate the spread of misinformation and erode public trust. This study examines the prevalence and characteristics of synthetic media on social media platform X from December 2022 to September 2023.

Keep Reading
Research Note

#SaveTheChildren: A pilot study of a social media movement co-opted by conspiracy theorists

Katherine M. FitzGerald and Timothy Graham

In a preliminary analysis of 121,984 posts from X (formerly known as Twitter) containing the hashtag #SaveTheChildren, we found that conspiratorial posts received more engagement than authentic hashtag activism between January 2022 and March 2023. Conspiratorial posts received twice the number of reposts as non-conspiratorial content.

Keep Reading