The madness of misperceptions: evaluating the ways anger contributes to misinformed beliefs.

This article examines how anger influences the formation of political misperceptions, focusing on data collected during President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial in early 2020. It identifies three key mechanisms by which anger contributes to misperceptions: increasing reliance on partisan heuristics, shaping political information-seeking behavior toward pro-attitudinal media and away from counterattitudinal sources, and potentially moderating the impact of partisan media exposure on factual beliefs. The study finds that higher anger levels strengthen the association between partisanship and belief accuracy, with angry partisans more likely to endorse claims favorable to their party regardless of truth. However, anger does not appear to moderate how partisan media consumption influences factual beliefs, and the specific target of anger (political left or right) shows limited effect on these dynamics. These findings highlight anger's complex role in reinforcing partisan divides in political knowledge during contentious political events.