We test three competing theoretical accounts invoked to explain the rise and spread of political (mis)information. We compare the ideological values hypothesis—people prefer news that bolsters their values and worldviews; the confirmation bias hypothesis—people prefer news that fits their pre-existing stereotypical knowledge; and the political identity hypothesis—people prefer news that allows them to believe positive things about political in-group members and negative things about political out-group members. In three experiments (N = 1420), participants from the United States read news describing actions perpetrated by their political in-group or out-group. Consistent with the political identity hypothesis, Democrats and Republicans were both more likely to believe news about the value-upholding behavior of their in-group or the value-undermining behavior of their out-group. Belief was positively correlated with willingness to share on social media in all conditions, but Republicans were more likely to believe and want to share apolitical fake news.
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Pereira et al. (2018) studied this question.