The role of affective partisan identities in African democracies remains under researched, particularly with respect to how they condition information processing. Yet, evidence from elsewhere suggests derived biases in the acquisition, processing, and recall of information shape the formation of attitudes, political behavior, and broader dynamics of polarization. In a lab-in-the-field experiment in Ghana (n » 1,200) we study how both positive and negative partisan identities condition voters’ vulnerability to misinformation and their adoption of congenial versus avoidance of discordant information. Our findings shed light on the wide-reaching effects of the psychological salience of group identities, identifying increases bias in evaluating both political and non-political information. Furthermore, we contribute (to our knowledge) the first study to experimentally prime positive and negative partisan identities and study their respective effects, highlighting the plurality of modes through which voters can be drawn into electoral politics and the divergent patterns of behavior they bring.