Emotions, Partisanship, and Misperceptions: How Anger and Anxiety Moderate the Effect of Partisan Bias on Susceptibility to Political Misinformation: Emotions and Misperceptions

Weeks, Brian E.

doi:10.1111/jcom.12164

Cited by 531Misinformation and Its ImpactsMedia Influence and PoliticsSocial Media and Politics

Emotions, Partisanship, and Misperceptions: How Anger and Anxiety Moderate the Effect of Partisan Bias on Susceptibility to Political Misinformation: Emotions and Misperceptions

Weeks, Brian E.·2015·Journal of Communication

DOI 10.1111/jcom.12164

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Abstract

Citizens are frequently misinformed about political issues and candidates but the circumstances under which inaccurate beliefs emerge are not fully understood. This experimental study demonstrates that the independent experience of two emotions, anger and anxiety, in part determines whether citizens consider misinformation in a partisan or open-minded fashion. Anger encourages partisan, motivated evaluation of uncorrected misinformation that results in beliefs consistent with the supported political party, while anxiety at times promotes initial beliefs based less on partisanship and more on the information environment. However, exposure to corrections improves belief accuracy, regardless of emotion or partisanship. The results indicate that the unique experience of anger and anxiety can affect the accuracy of political beliefs by strengthening or attenuating the influence of partisanship.

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Reliance on emotion is associated with misinformation sharing or believing in conspiracy theories.
“reliance on emotion is associated with misinformation sharing (Weeks, 2015) or believing in conspiracy theories (Garrett & Weeks, 2017;Martel et al., 2019)”
From The fingerprints of misinformation: how deceptive content differs from reliable sources in terms of cognitive effort and appeal to emotions (2022) · cites this paper as Weeks, 2015

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Authors: Weeks, B. E.
Affiliations: University of Michigan (US)
Corresponding author: Weeks, Brian E.
ORCID: Weeks, Brian E.
Venue: Journal of Communication
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published: 2015-06-19
Volume: 65
Issue: 4
Pages: 699-719
ISSN: 0021-9916 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1111/jcom.12164
OpenAlex: W1837189719
Semantic Scholar: e4fa93b6e9f0a6f5d8414340c9d90712364c4878
Cited by: 531
References: 45
Citations by year: 2026: 34 · 2025: 48 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 83 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 73 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 1
FWCI: 58.48
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: doi.wiley.com/10.1002/tdm_license_1.1 (tdm, 74 d)
Locations: Journal of Communication (publishedVersion)
Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
Funders: National Science Foundation
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
Keywords: political misinformation, partisanship, anger, anxiety, emotions, belief accuracy, misinformation correction, motivated reasoning, political beliefs, information environment

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Emotions, Partisanship, and Misperceptions: How Anger and Anxiety Moderate the Effect of Partisan Bias on Susceptibility to Political Misinformation: Emotions and Misperceptions

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