Table A2.

Survey item wording for all other independent variables.

Demographic Variables	Response Options
Coastal counties: “What is your ZIP code?”	Open-ended, then coded for two regions (“Coastal” and “Non-coastal”
Age: “What year were you born?”	Drop-down list of years, then recoded by subtracting birth year from 2020
Sex: “What is your sex?”	Male, Female
Education: “What is the highest level of schooling you have completed?”	Less than high school to Doctorate (Ph.D.) (8 options)
Income: “In 2019, was your household income before taxes…”	Less than USD 10,000, to More than USD 150,000 (12 options)
Rent home: “Do you rent or own your current residence?”	Rent, Own, Not Sure
Ethnicity: “What is your ethnicity?”	Hispanic, Not Hispanic
Race: “What is your race? (Select all that apply.)”	White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, other
Values and Beliefs
Political ideology: “The terms ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ may mean different things to different people depending on the kind of issue one is considering. How would you describe your views in terms of…?”
Economic issues	Very liberal to very conservative (5 options)
Social issue
Religiosity: “How much guidance does religion play in your everyday life?”	No guidance at all to A lot of guidance (5 options)
Trust in research: “How much do you trust the following sources of information to tell you the truth about health risks facing your community?”
Scientists at universities	Do not trust at all to Trust completely (5 options)
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services
Attention to News
“When you [read a newspaper or a news website/watch television news], how much attention do you pay to news about …?”
Science and technology	None (including “no exposure”) to A lot (5 options)
Health and medicine
Government and Politics