This marked the first time Scientific American or the Lancet had made a political endorsement. Among them, Nature, Scientific American and the Lancet explicitly endorsed his challenger Joe Biden 1. Most of these journals urged voters to replace Trump. In the run-up to the 2020 US presidential election, numerous influential scientific publications, including Nature, Scientific American, the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine and Science, published editorial pieces criticizing then-president Donald Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his antagonistic attitudes towards science. Scientific organizations and publications have become increasingly involved in electoral politics. These results suggest that political endorsement by scientific journals can undermine and polarize public confidence in the endorsing journals and the scientific community. I found little evidence that the endorsement changed views about Biden and Trump. The estimated effects on Biden supporters’ trust in Nature and scientists were positive, small and mostly statistically insignificant. ![]() The endorsement also reduced Trump supporters’ trust in scientists in general. This distrust lowered the demand for COVID-related information provided by Nature, as evidenced by substantially reduced requests for Nature articles on vaccine efficacy when offered. The endorsement message caused large reductions in stated trust in Nature among Trump supporters. ![]() In a preregistered large-sample controlled experiment, I randomly assigned participants to receive information about the endorsement of Joe Biden by the scientific journal Nature during the COVID-19 pandemic. High-profile political endorsements by scientific publications have become common in recent years, raising concerns about backlash against the endorsing organizations and scientific expertise.
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