Table 1 Study measures: inter-item correlation ranges (IICR), Cronbach’s alpha, and whether the measure was used during pre-test and/or post-test (N/A not applicable)

Final semester grade: students’ final percent grade in the evolutionary medicine course

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Parental educational level (two items): mean of mothers’ and fathers’ highest educational levels (scale 1–5: some high school to graduate school)

✓

N/A

N/A

Cultural/attitudinal measures

 Parental attitude towards evolution (two items): mean agreement (scale 1–5: disagree to agree): what attitude do you think your (1) father or guardian has toward evolution? (2) mother or guardian has toward evolution?

✓

N/A

N/A

 Student religiosity (one item): how important is religion in your life? (scale 1–4: not important to very important)

✓

N/A

N/A

 Student acceptance of evolution (three items): mean agreement (scale 1–5: disagree to agree): do you think that evolutionary principles explain the origins of (1) reptiles (2) humans (3) viruses?

✓

.60–.78

.86

Cognitive measures

 Prior educational exposure (one item): how much have you learned about evolution? (scale 1–5: not much to a lot)

✓

N/A

N/A

 Teleological reasoning (three items): mean agreement (scale 1–5: disagree to agree): (1) natural selection shapes health and longevity; (2) evolutionary changes arise in response to the needs of organisms to adapt to its environment; (3) natural selection shapes healthy inclinations

✓

✓

.26–.45

.60

 Natural selection understanding (20 items): CINS, multiple choice test in which participants select the best answer out of four responses (score = total number correct)

✓

✓

N/A

.71