Anger-driven Misinformation about Immigration: A Cross National Examination

Anger is known to bias judgments and evaluations across various subjects. Following earlier studies on how emotions fuel cognitive biases (e.g., Davis, Klar, and Weber 2019; Redlawsk 2002; Suhay and Erisen 2018), we are interested in whether anger (in comparison to anxiety and enthusiasm) about immigration increases the likelihood of overestimating the number of incoming and outgoing immigrants to the country [UK, Germany, and Greece]. Running a survey experiment with nationally representative samples across three countries, we test if anger increases the likelihood of overestimation when it comes to assessing the presence of immigrants in the country. We find that angry individuals present stronger opinions about immigrants and seek confirmation of their existing beliefs. They tend to accept information in line with their prior evaluations and, in this case, perceive a higher number of immigrants entering the country and losing significantly more outgoing natives as immigrants to other countries. Overall, this paper sheds light on the role that emotions play in the acceptance of misinformation about immigration policy and immigrants in three Western countries.