According to a recent Pew Research Center poll 18% of those who answered the questionnaire thought that President Obama was a Muslim.
It is a conundrum considering the hub-bub that Fox News stirred up concerning the Reverend Wright an honorable and without question a Christian minister. Yet, the meme persists and is growing as one can see in the graphic above.
So, why do Americans believe such obvious falsehoods...
According to Dr. Spee Kosloff of Michigan State University folk are most likely to believe falsehoods about prominent politicians in general and our president, in particular, when they sense some real or imagined social difference between themselves and that politician.
The research by Spee Kosloff and colleagues suggests people are most likely to accept such falsehoods, both consciously and unconsciously, when subtle clues remind them of ways in which Obama is different from them, whether because of race, social class or other ideological differences.
These judgments, Kosloff argues, are irrational. He also suggests they are fueled by an "irresponsible" media culture that allows political pundits and "talking heads" to perpetuate the lies.
Dr. Kosloff goes on to say, "Careless or biased media outlets are largely responsible for the propagation of these falsehoods, which catch on like wildfire." It is more likely for people to believe such untruths when they perceive some social difference between them.
In four separate experiments (three before the election and one after), the researchers looked at both conscious and unconscious acceptance of political smears by mostly white, non-Muslim college students. For the conscious trials, the participants were shown false blog reports arguing that Obama is a Muslim or a socialist or that John McCain is senile. The unconscious trials involved gauging how rapidly subjects could identify smear-relevant words such as "Muslim" or "turban" after Obama’s name was presented subliminally.
Some of the results reported by the team from Michigan State are:
• On average, participants who supported McCain said there is a 56 percent likelihood Obama is a Muslim. But when they were asked to fill out a demographic card asking for their own race, the likelihood jumped to 77 percent. Kosloff said this shows that simply thinking about a social category that differentiated participants from Obama was enough to get them to believe the smear.
• Participants undecided about the candidates said there is a 43 percent chance McCain is senile – a number that increased to 73 percent when they simply listed their own age on a card.
• Undecided participants said there is a 25 percent chance Obama is a socialist – a number that jumped to 62 percent when they considered race. "Even though being a socialist has nothing to do with race," Kosloff said, "irrationally they tied the two together."
Of course, these results seem, at least to myself, to be intuitive. If you feel your different from someone you are much more likely to believe the worst. Dr. Kosloff has shown that that intuition has scientific merit.
With each little dissatisfaction with President Obama's policies people with the inclination will tend to believe the slanders and libels that his political enemies wish to disseminate.
LINKS:
Why Americans believe Obama is a Muslim. Quotes taken from the Michigan State University news article.
Why Americans believe Obama is a Muslim (PhysOrg)
Growing Number of Americans Say Obama is a Muslim
Bonus
Crosstabs from the Pew poll: