Predictors of partisan news selection and political misinformation sharing

Abstract

This research investigates the effect of partisan news consumers’ experience of (in)coherence on their consumptive and sharing tendencies for political news stories that contain misinformation. Two experiments simulated the selective exposure experience while manipulating (in)coherence to determine how partisan news consumers process and respond to political misinformation. The results of a moderated mediation model show that the consumption of coherent partisan news content that includes misinformation leads to less metacognitive effort, more enjoyment, and a greater likelihood of using that partisan news source again, expressing one’s opinion about the news story, and sharing the misinformation contained in the partisan news story.