## 3 Data Collection and Respondents
### Survey and Data Collection  
This paper draws from the same data used in [20; 21; 22]. It utilized a survey instrument which is based on (modified from) the survey instrument which was used for data collection in [19]. There are several differences between the instrument used for this work and the instrument used in [19]. First, the questions from the three surveys used in [19], which were previously administered independently, were combined. After this, editing then focused on removing questions. Some questions were included on two or more of the three surveys and duplicates were thus removed. The survey was also edited to reduce the required response time. The project team and Qualtrics survey staff reviewed the revised survey instrument before its use.  
Instrument reliability was enhanced through several efforts. First, an initial pilot was performed at two universities. As part of this effort, multiple students wrote and reviewed questions. These questions were also reviewed by other project team members prior to this initial pilot study, covering a variety of ages and other demographic characteristics. For the current study, the questions were reviewed again by the project team members and Qualtrics staff. Then, as part of Qualtrics' standard procedure, a limited pilot study phase was used to validate the instrument, before the larger scale study commenced. Because no issues occurred during the pilot, these responses were applied to the demographic quotas and are included in the dataset which is analyzed herein.  
Questions on the survey instrument ask respondents about their personal perceptions, their perceptions of others' attitudes and beliefs, and their perceptions of what is ideal. These data were collected using a series of related questions:  
* _How much of an impact does [topic] have on your personal perceptions of trustworthiness and or credibility of an article?_
* _How much of an impact do you believe the [topic] has on other people's perception of the trustworthiness and or credibility of an article?_
* _If you were acting in an ideal manner, to what extent should [topic] impact your perception of the trustworthiness and or credibility of an article?_  
These three related questions facilitate conducting analysis that compares respondents' own action and belief perceptions, respondents' perceptions of others and their belief regarding what should be done. Respondents were asked to choose one of five responses which were presented, in the survey, on a Likert-like scale:  
* _A great deal_
* _A lot_
* _A moderate amount_
* _A little_
* _None at all_  
Data was collected for analysis, in this paper, by Qualtrics International Inc. using a quota-based stratified sampling technique using the survey instrument described previously. Respondents were recruited to provide a population proportionate representation in terms several key demographic characteristics: gender, age, income level and political affiliation. The survey was conducted in October of 2021. From this, approximately 550 responses were received. Five-hundred of these responses were a part of the population representative sample. An incentive (such as airline miles or a gift card) was given to respondents who completed the survey; thus, most responses were complete. All responses, which include an answer to the relevant response question and demographics being analyzed, were considered in this paper. This includes some respondents who are not part of the population representative quotas. The responses for each question were analyzed, using Qualtrics and Microsoft Excel software, and the each of the three demographic characteristics' impact are assessed herein.