Harris interactive headlined, “Wingnuts” and President Obama, for a poll finding that large numbers of Americans hold extreme views of our president:
It finds that 40% of adults believe he is a socialist. More than 30% think he wants to take away Americans’ right to own guns and that he is a Muslim. More than 25% believe he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a world government, has done many things that are unconstitutional, that he resents America’s heritage, and that he does what Wall Street tells him to do.
More than 20% believe he was not born in the United States, that he is “the domestic enemy the U.S. Constitution speaks of,” that he is racist and anti-American, and that he “wants to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers.” Fully 20% think he is “doing many of the things that Hitler did,” while 14% believe “he may be the anti-Christ” and 13% think “he wants the terrorists to win.”
The poll points to a book by Jon Avlon, Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America, and was first cited by Avlon himself in a Daily Beast piece titled, Scary New GOP Poll. This market-tainted self-referential feedback loop is bad enough, but in the not-so-fine print we learn that the poll itself has no legitimacy:
Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys… Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
Emphasis mine. And for the record, that statement “conform[s] to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.”
In the aftermath of the health care debate there were lots of accusations that the heated rhetoric of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the Fox News crew was inciting people to acts of vandalism and violence. I parroted some of that here and might even have linked to the Harris poll had I seen it before. Just lucky I guess.
This reflection was triggered today by another study. This one from academia, UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, explores belief in the rumor that President Obama is Muslim:
Approximately 20 percent of Americans believed that then-Sen. Barack Obama was a Muslim during the 2008 presidential campaign despite news stories and fact-checking Web sites that attempted to debunk the rumor. Barry Hollander, an associate professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, analyzed data from a survey of more than 2,400 people taken at three points during the campaign to see if exposure to news media helped correct misperceptions about Obama’s faith.
“With most forms of political knowledge, media should theoretically make you more accurate,” Hollander said. “In this case, media exposure had no effect. Ultimately, the message here is that people believe what they want to believe.”
Hollander, whose study will appear in the Journal of Media and Religion, explained the findings are consistent with psychological studies on selective memory that show that people tend to discount facts that are inconsistent with their pre-existing beliefs. People are also less likely to remember information that conflicts with their beliefs.
Throughout last week’s tumult I saw people saying that both sides do it, but I held tight to my skepticism. My side didn’t spit; it didn’t shout the worst racial epithet at a civil rights icon. But today I find myself understanding that my side is just as bad. We gussy our preconceived notions up in a Harris Interactive survey. Then, armed with that ammo, we’re free to smugly believe whatever we want. Sadly, that’s just as insidious as that which we fear from the other side.
Later: Ironic that I posted moments after Joe posted on the FBI arrest of a man for threatening to kill Rep. Eric Cantor.