They wanted to see the effect of citing scientists and research on the acceptance of the false claims. As predicted, referring to science or scientists increased acceptance. They found that subjects who scored higher in terms of trust in science were more likely to believe false claims when scientists were cited – so trust in science made them more vulnerable to pseudoscience. For those with low trust in science, the presence or absence of scientific content had no effect on their belief in the false claims.
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This thing that literature and statements can be cherrypicked and quoted out of context, or merely constitute opinion even though it’s stated in a mainstream scientific paper, is a very tough hurdle to overcome in combating pseudoscience.
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