The idea of using a fake result to break a paradigm has been used in a number of science fiction stories. I believe that the earliest is "Noise Level" (1952) by Raymond F. Jones, though the idea originated with John W. Campbell [0]. I first came across this concept in Robert Silverberg's "Double Dare" (1956) [1].

[0] https://nevalalee.wordpress.com/2016/09/28/astounding-storie...

[1] https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1956-11/Galaxy_195...