Outcomes
There were 5 primary outcome variables, each of which corresponded to a hypothesis as well as a prespecified reanalysis of that hypothesis (in which arm × political orientation was added as an interaction term). The variables were collected as prespecified, so we directly copied the text from our protocol here [The overall trust in science and scientists was measured by the 21-item scale developed and validated by Nadelson et al [Measures of credibility and trust that were specific to the hypothetical social media post and the scientist who conducted the study (from Song et al [“How credible is the scientist who conducted the study described in the post?” (1=not credible at all to 7=extremely credible); note that this language is slightly different from the original item to avoid ambiguity arising from the potential that a scientist authored the social media post;“How credible is this research?” (1=not credible at all to 7=extremely credible);“I would trust scientific information if I knew it came from this author.” (1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree);“I trust this scientific information.” (1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree).