Table 1.

Study design and findings of prior experimental research examining moderating influence on the effects of consensus messages with U.S. samples

	Pre-/posttest Experimental design	Posttest only Experimental design
Consensus message effect IS moderated, such that the consensus message positively affects skeptics’ attitudes more than non-skeptics’ attitudes.	Van der Linden et al. (2015) climate change, prior beliefs Van der Linden et al. (2019) climate change, political ideology
Consensus message effect IS NOT moderated. The consensus message affects all individuals similarly.	Lewandowsky et al. (2012) climate change, free market beliefs (U.S. sample) Van der Linden et al. (2015) climate change, political ideology Van der Linden et al. (2016) climate change, political ideology Deryugina and Shurchov (2016) climate change, political ideology Goldberg et al. (2019a) climate change, political ideology Goldberg et al. (2019b) climate change, political ideology	Van der Linden et al. (2015) vaccines, political ideology
Consensus message effect IS moderated, such that the consensus message does not affect skeptics’ attitudes as strongly as non-skeptics’ attitudes OR causes backfire effects among skeptical individuals.	Ma et al. (2019) Climate change, reactance	Dixon (2016) GMOs, prior beliefs Cook and Lewandowsky (2016) climate change, free market beliefs (U.S. sample) Dixon et al. (2017) climate change, political ideology Bolsen and Druckman (2018) climate change, partisanship & knowledge Dixon and Hubner (2018) climate change & nuclear power, political ideology

Note: Below each study in italics are the substantive topics the studies engaged with, followed by the moderator interacted with exposure to a consensus message