Learn English – Passive “led” followed by (“into” and gerund) or (“to” and infinitive)

infinitive-vs-gerundphrase-choiceprepositions

Which of those two sentences is correct?

  1. People were led into thinking that method X was beneficial for Y.

or

  1. People were led to think that method X was beneficial for Y.

Perhaps you also have an explanation why one or the other is correct?

EDIT

It is safe to assume that all words unrelated to the question (words that are neither the preposition after "led" nor a form of the verb "think") are correct and there is no need to point out that those could be incorrect, depending on the context of use.

Best Answer

When you lead X {infinitive}, you are saying that you are causing X to do or be in a state of doing the verb identified in the infinitive.

When you lead X into Y, you are saying that you are causing X to be moved (i.e. bringing X) inside of/within/surrounded by Y - that's what the preposition in/into means.'

With lead X into Y, Y can be a gerund, which makes it mean the same as lead X {infinitive}, but possibly with a slight implication that X did not originally plan to do Y. This distinction, if it exists, probably matters more in written text, like in a story, than in conversation.

We followed the map which led us to walk down this path.

That crazy squirrel led us into walking down this path.

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