In the Agora: What Americans Believe

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October 26, 2007

What Americans Believe

48% believe in ESP

37% believe the U.S. made the right decision to invade Iraq

36% are baseball fans

34% believe in ghosts

33% believe in UFOs

31% approve of Bush's job performance

23% have seen ghosts or been in their presence

19% accept the existence of spells or witchcraft

13% dread walking under a ladder

13% dread the groom seeing his bride before their wedding

(Source: The Guardian)

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at October 26, 2007 10:09 AM

Comments

Hey, Bush is up to 35% since the article came out :-) And Congress is still trailing, at 25%.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305156,00.html

Posted by: Alan K. Henderson at October 26, 2007 11:37 AM | permalink

I've always hated Congressional approval ratings, as it's not an appropriate comparison to the presidential approval rating.

I'd much rather see the survey ask if they approve of the job their individual senator or representative is doing; I'd bet that the result would be significantly higher.

Posted by: Michael LoPrete at October 26, 2007 11:53 AM | permalink

Congressional approval ratings certainly are more complex than Presidential approval. They definitely can't be used as a proxy for approval of the party which controls Congress. Rarely if ever do you see party approval ratings publicized. The Fox News poll Alan cites didn't even ask about that.

Posted by: Eric Seymour at October 26, 2007 12:44 PM | permalink

34% believe in ghosts

Way too low. For example, 80% of the US public identifies itself as Christian and the core of Christian theology is, of course, the theology of the Holy Ghost.

Since religion is, by definition, a belief in the supernatural -- i.e. belief in ghosts -- and since only 10% of the US population declare no religious beliefs, I'd say that the number who believe in ghosts is 90, not 34, percent.

Posted by: Gregory Travis at October 30, 2007 02:51 PM | permalink

I think they mean "ghosts" as in spirits of the dead lingering in the realm of the living.

Posted by: Aaron Armitage at October 31, 2007 02:52 PM | permalink

I think they mean "ghosts" as in spirits of the dead lingering in the realm of the living.

Jesus, who died on the cross, isn't watching me, right now, as I type?

Posted by: Gregory Travis at November 2, 2007 07:17 AM | permalink