Questionnaire Section	Variable	Level of Measurement	Measure
I. Basic Information	Voting or Not Voting	Nominal	Yes or No
	Party of mayoral candidate voted	Nominal	KMT, DPP, Independent Candidates, or other parties
	Gender	Nominal	Male, Female or others
	Age	Ordinal	20 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59, or above 60
	Education	Ordinal	Junior high school or below, high school, university, graduate school or above
	Place of residence	Nominal	Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Taichung City, Taichung County, Tainan City, Tainan County, Kaohsiung City, Yilan County, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Changhua County, Nantou County, Yunlin County, Chiayi City, Chiayi County, Pingtung County, Taitung County, Hualien County, or Keelung City
	Income level	Ordinal	5,000 and below, 5,001 to 10,000, 10,001 to 20,000, 20,001 to 30,000, 30,001 to 40,000, 40,001 to 50,000, 50,001 to 100,000, or 100,001 and above
	Party inclination	Nominal	DPP, KMT, NPP, SDP, TSP, GPT, PFP, NP, Minkuotang, or no specific party inclination
II. News Media Use	The most important news source in this mayoral election	Nominal	Social media, online news, TV News, newspaper, or radio and the others
	Average time spent consuming news or information about the election via news media	Ordinal	Less than one hour, one to two hours, two to three hours, three to four hours, four to five hours, or more than five hours
	Average time spent consuming news or information about the election via social media (e.g., Facebook, LINE, and Instagram)	Ordinal	Less than one hour, one to two hours, two to three hours, three to four hours, four to five hours, or more than five hours
	The most viewed online news platforms during the period of mayoral election	Nominal	Yahoo News, Now News, ET Today, Facebook, PTT, The Storm Media, LINE, Google sites, YouTube, and Pixnet (multiple response question, no more than three)
	The most viewed TV news channels during the period of mayoral election	Nominal	TVBS, SET, CTI, EBC, ERA, Next TV, FTV, TTV, CTV, CTS, and PTS (multiple response question, no more than three)
	The most viewed newspaper during the period of mayoral election	Nominal	Liberty Times, Apple Daily, United Daily or China Times
	The most used online campaigning platform of candidates	Nominal	Facebook, LINE, Facebook fans pagse, candidates’ live stream, or online live programs
III. Fake News Cognition	Whether the respondents recalled the six of the most influential fake news items in the election and how much they recalled: A farmer named “Wax Brother” kneeled down and wailed in front of Han Gao-yu, crying that the cabbage price had dropped to two NT$ for 600 kg. During Typhoon Jebi in October 2018, Kansai Airport was closed. If Taiwanese travelers identified themselves as Chinese, they were allowed to get on the evacuation bus, while Taiwan’s representative office didn’t provide any help. President Tsai Ing-wen visited victims in a huge rainstorm in August 2018. She commanded the soldiers to be armed to protect her safety, and did not step into the water to visit the victims. A Facebook account named “Li Ronggui” repeatedly posted accusations against DPP Kaohsiung’s mayoral candidate and former DPP Kaohsiung’s mayor Chen Ju, saying that they were involved in procurement fraud cases. In Han Gao-yu’s “Northern Floating Youth” campaign advertising videos, a young lady was mourning that she had been working since graduation in Taipei, because of Kaohsiung’s economic recession, and she could not even return home when her family members passed away. President Tsai Ing-wen considered renting Taiping Island to the United States as a military base without considering the needs and welfare of the Taiping fishermen.	Ordinal	Likert scale (Very clearly, clearly, a bit unclear, very unclear, or not remember at all)
IV. Fake News Discernment	Whether the respondents were able to judge the corrected versions of the six fake news items on the election day and to what degree they could judge. “Wax Brother’s” true identity was a host in a webcasting/streaming show. The evacuation buses sent by the Chinese consulate picked people up from Izumisano, 11.6 km away from Kansai airport. No Taiwanese got on the buses either. The military vehicle President Tsai rode in a huge rainstorm in August 2018 was not armed with any weapons. Tsai stepped into the water in rain boots to visit victims. The police investigation confirmed that the IP address for the “Li Ronggui” Facebook account was fake and the IP address was traced to Singapore. The young lady in Han Gao-yu’s “Northern Floating Youth” campaign advertising videos was actually a member of the cheerleading team of Premier League Fubang and has also been pursuing entertainment careers in China. The Taiwanese government officially claimed that it never planned to lend Taiping Island to other countries, including the United States, nor has any foreign country ever made such a request.	Ordinal	Likert scale (strongly agree the corrected report as true, partly agree, partly disagree, strongly disagree, or not able to judge)
V. China Influence and Fact-checking	How voters believed that China initiated cyber army to attack or support specific candidates or political parties in this election	Ordinal	Likert scale (strongly believe, believe, slightly believe, slightly disbelieve, disbelieve, strongly disbelieve, or not able to judge)
	How voters believed that China might have intervened in the 2018 election by sponsoring and funding specific candidates for buying TV news, advertising or online news.	Ordinal	Likert scale (strongly believe, believe, slightly believe, slightly disbelieve, disbelieve, strongly disbelieve, or not able to judge)
	The most important issue in this mayoral election	Nominal	Economic, livelihood, reformation, democratic system, human rights (including gay marriage), or local governance issues
	Frequency of using NGO news fact-checking services or websites to check news authenticity	Ordinal	Likert scale (never, seldom, sometimes, frequently, or never heard of such services or websites)
	Frequency of comparing news reports with different political positions to check news authenticity	Ordinal	Likert scale (never, seldom, sometimes, frequently, always)
	Frequency of comparing key opinion leaders’ online comments to check news authenticity	Ordinal	Likert scale (never, seldom, sometimes, frequently, always)
	Frequency of using Executive Yuan's news clarification services to check news authenticity	Ordinal	Likert scale (never, seldom, sometimes, frequently, or never heard of such services)
	Which measures voters view as adequate to combat disinformation in Taiwan?	Nominal	Legislate to impose responsibilities on news media; no need to legislate but ask news media to self-manage, if violated, news media will be fined; no need to legislate but ask news media to self-regulate, or no opinion

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