The problem
Agreement between records is not equivalent to independent corroboration. A witness statement, news article and AI summary may repeat the same initial report. Counting them as three independent observations artificially multiplies confidence.
Analytical approach
Map source ancestry before weighing apparent consensus. Ask who created each assertion, what material was visible to them, and whether the agreement could occur without the underlying event.
Falsifiable test
A practical falsification test is to remove the common upstream source and ask what independent evidence remains.
Operational implications
A defensible workflow should record the exact input, collection method, version, context, counter-explanation and reason for the conclusion. Reviewers should be able to disagree with the inference without losing the underlying observation. When this topic is applied to a real investigation, safety, lawful authority and domain-qualified professional guidance take precedence over a generic article.
Next research step
Publish a small case study with a documented baseline, an adversarial or failure-mode control, outcome criteria and enough data to reproduce the result. Report inconclusive findings alongside successes. This page is a research primer, not a claim that the proposed test has already been performed.
Source and revision record
Original editorial analysis and definitions. For background reference, consult the source catalog.