A poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind found that a relatively high percentage of people continue to hold false beliefs about the Iraq War and President Obama’s citizenship–and that their beliefs often follow their ideology.
Over four in ten Americans think it’s “likely” that the U.S. government uncovered an active weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq—spoiler alert: they didn’t—while almost a fifth think President Obama “probably” or “definitely” is not a U.S. citizen.
An individual’s false beliefs were likely to correspond to their political beliefs. 51 percent of Republicans think U.S. forces “probably” or “definitely” found an active WMD program, while only 32 percent of Democrats believe the same. Democrats and non-whites are more likely to think last year’s Secret Service fail was part of a plot against the president’s life, while conservatives are more likely to think Obama is lying about his citizenship.
The researchers tie some of the disparity to partisan media. 52 percent of Fox News viewers, for example, believe that WMDs probably or definitely were discovered, compared to just 14 percent of MSNBC viewers. 30 percent of Fox News fans think Obama was probably or definitely born outside the U.S., while 19 percent of the general population, 13 percent of CNN viewers, and 7 percent of MSNBC viewers think the same.
The level of a respondent’s political knowledge also corresponded to the likelihood of their believing conspiracy theories. And overall, their political knowledge was not very impressive. A third were unable to answer any of these three questions: “Which party currently controls the House of Representatives? What are the three branches of government? Name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.” 26 percent got one right, 27 percent two, and only 13 percent knew the answer to all three.
The minority that knew the answer to all three questions was the least likely to believe the incorrect theories, and even those who could answer just one question correctly were less likely than the general population to believe them.
The prevalence of conspiracy theories among Americans is, sadly, well-documented: one past study from the University of Chicago found that 50 percent of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory—from thinking 9/11 was an inside job, to being convinced that the government pressed fluorescent light bulbs on the public as a ploy for mind-control.
