Highlighting consensus among medical scientists increases public support for vaccines: evidence from a randomized experiment

Table 1 Main effect of highlighting scientific consensus on dependent variables

Dependent variables	Mean consensus treatments	Mean control group	Cohen’s D
Dependent variables	(n = 163)	(n = 43)	Cohen’s D
Perceived scientific agreement	89.80 ^*** (0.52)	83.93 (2.65)	0.60
Endorsement autism-vaccine link	2.15 ^*** (0.12)	3.07 (0.34)	0.55
Risk perception	2.93 ^*** (0.14)	3.51 (0.35)	0.31
Public support/attitudes	6.21 ^*** (0.09)	5.66 (0.24)	0.44

Note: Standard errors in parentheses. All mean comparisons significant at ^*** p < 0.01 (bold face). Unequal variances assumed. Cohen’s D is a standardized measure of effect size. Values between 0.3 and 0.6 are generally considered to be “moderate” effect-sizes in behavioral science [25]

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