 Situations in which public opinion is more heavily influenced by emotion than logic or evidence. 


University of Delaware

Arizona State University

- Negative emotional state vs. positive emotional state
- High arousal conditions vs. low arousal conditions
- The cognitive impact of anger 
- Anger and suggestibility
- Anger's effect on speed and confidence 
- Post-truth situation

Influences of emotion on accepting misinformation

Greifeneder, R., Jaffe, M., Newman, E., & Schwarz, N. (Eds.). (2021). The Psychology of Fake News: Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429295379

The Psychology of Fake News

People in a negative emotional state are more strongly influenced by misinformation effects than those in a positive emotional state.


Valence of the emotional state and willingness to accept misinformation

People are at increased vulnerability to misinformation in high arousal conditions vs. low arousal conditions.

Arousal and vulnerability to misinformation

While arousal and valence have to been found to increase vulnerability to misinformation, these two factors do not universally predict the effect of misinformation on people, so there has to be some other explanation for why emotion can impact susceptibility to misinformation.

Limits of arousal and valence of emotional state accounting for acceptance of misinformation

- More attention and memory is devoted to goal-relevant information.
- Greater use of cognitive shortcuts (ex: stereotyping) to inform subsequent action.
- Leads to an approach-orientation rather than avoidance-orientation.

The basis of the cognitive impact of anger

Participants who were assigned to the anger condition were more suggestible than neutral participants. This means they could be more easily influenced and convinced by post-event misinformation.

Anger and suggestibility

Participants in the anger condition felt more confident in their answers to questions about the source of information than neutral participants. Also participants in the angry condition made judgements about the source of the items faster than those in the neutral condition. 

Anger's effect on speed and confidence in accepting misinformation

Emotions can play a large factor in the formation of political identity, as well as influence their belief in political misinformation. Anxiety and anger can result in differences in how an individual approaches political misinformation. Having anxiety can influence a person to further seek out political information learning, whereas being angry can influence a person to be more close-minded with the political information they are presented with.

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