False and Misleading Information: An Evidence Summary and Map for Policy and Practice

Funded through a tender commissioned by the Government Office for Science, and conducted as part of Behavioural Research UK, the report presents findings from a rapid evidence review informed by expert consultation. It responds to a cross-government need for a robust synthesis of current evidence on false and misleading information, including how it is defined and measured, the harms it causes, and the effectiveness of approaches to reduce its impact.

The findings point to false and misleading information as an increasingly widespread issue, intensified by AI technologies that accelerate its creation and spread. The impacts include individual harms and broader societal effects, including reduced trust in institutions and greater polarisation. The evidence also suggests that while approaches such as pre-bunking, fact-checking, and literacy initiatives can help, stronger system-level measures are needed, including platform regulation and improved researcher access to data. The protocol for the study and the report are available from the Open Science Framework.

Enquiries regarding the report should be addressed to Dr Harriet Baird via email to harriet.baird[@]sheffield.ac.uk.

Funding

This research was funded through a tender commissioned by the Government Office for Science and was supported and conducted as part of Behavioural Research UK's Methods & Evidence Synthesis programme of work.

About Method & Evidence Synthesis

BR-UK's method & evidence synthesis projects will improve the reliability and accessibility of methods in behavioural research, incorporating ontologies, robust frameworks, causal models, and tools for effective data integration and visualisation. It also provides tools and opportunities to rapidly identify and synthesise evidence as part of our rapid systematic review function to provide rapid and high-quality reviews to inform decision-making in response to emerging issues.