Poll about belief in strange phenomena
According to a new Associated Press/Ispos poll of 1,013 adults in the US, approximately one out of three people believe in ghosts, 19 percent in spells or witchcraft, 48 percent in ESP, and 34 percent in UFOs. Meanwhile, 23 percent claim to have "seen or believed (they) were in the presence of a ghost," 14 percent say they have sighted a UFO, and only five percent have "seen a monster in the closet of (their) bedroom." The low positive response to that last question is probably because the poll did not inquire about monsters seen under the bed, which is where the 82 percent of bedroom monsters actually reside. From the Associated Press:
One in five say they are at least somewhat superstitious, with young men, minorities, and the less educated more likely to go out of their way to seek luck. Twenty-six percent of urban residents — twice the rate of those from rural areas — said they are superstitious, while single men were more superstitious than unmarried women, 31 percent to 17 percent...Link to AP article, Link to AP/Ipsos Poll results page
Generally, women were more superstitious than men about four-leaf clovers, breaking mirrors or grooms prematurely seeing brides. Democrats were more superstitious than Republicans over opening umbrellas indoors, while liberals were more superstitious than conservatives over four-leaf clovers, grooms seeing brides and umbrellas.
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I'm not surprised at all. 79% of Americans believe there is a God, and 66% are absolutely certain this is true. Only 9% do not believe in God, while a further 12% are not sure. According to http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=408
Ghoul Disclosure: Must Home Sellers Disclose Paranormal Activity?
http://tinyurl.com/28kagh
And...
Death on a property may be material. In California, the Association of Realtors addressed the issue of death disclosure requirements. Civil Code §1710.2 states death on a property need not be disclosed if it occurred more than three years prior to the sale. The statute does require disclosure of a death more than three years old if the buyer asks. It does not state whether a death within three years must be disclosed, but many brokerage firms have Supplemental Disclosure Forms that specifically inquire about death. To avoid liability, it is recommended the seller disclose if a death occurred within the last three years, and let the buyer decide.[1] Some states have even gone further requiring home sellers to disclose "stigmas" attached to a property, which can include proximities to homeless shelters or whether it was scene to a violent crime.
Why do you have to believe in UFOs? By definition, they are just unidentified flying objects. Perhaps spacecraft piloted by extraterrestrials was meant instead of UFOs.
Hey, if a trial-court judge can use the assistance of invisible elves named after popular vampires to dispatch criticizers, then who am I to argue?
Something tells me this survey didn't account for the full spectrum of personal superstitions/mythologies most people construct for themselves. This is America, baby. We believe in the triumph of individual superstition. Four leaf clovers? Who's that coherent nowadays, anyway?
When I was in Africa, alone in this wooden hut in the middle of nowhere, I witnessed what seemed to be poltergeist activity.
While failing to get any meaningful sleep, I heard this extremely loud scraping, like a chest-of-drawers being dragged bodily across a wooden floor. This happened a few times, loud enough that I knew for sure it wasn't a dream.
The noise seemed to be coming from nearby a window, so naturally I tiptoed over to it and looked outside. It turns out there was a rhinoceros using the side of my hut as a rubbing-post. Kind of quashed any belief I had in ghosts, but made me more respectful of other people's idiotic beliefs. Best thing about it though was that the rhino had brought along its baby too.
So the moral is, baby rhino = cute. Save AFRICA!
Hey, you can be completely bonkers and still be a pretty good Canadian Prime Minister.
How many believe in Creation Science or Global Warming? How many play the lottery?
So the moral is, baby rhino = cute. Save AFRICA!
Save Africa? From what, continental drift?
AP/Ipsos provides 2 further pdf breakdowns of their poll.
Gee, why can't they just provide a spreadsheet of their raw data. It would only have 1,013 rows and would probably be smaller than their PDFs. The AP article mentioned a few correlations that weren't present in the PDFs:
I would be much more interested in looking at the raw data and seeing if religiosity, education, and income have correlations with supernatural beliefs.Also in future polls they should include "belief in angels" which I think would give good correlations.
You have to appreciate the beauty of David Pescovitz posting this on Boing! Boing! since he's also the person who is primarily responsible for all the Bigfoot links at BB over the years.
Monsters under the bed? Hell,I've got a grainy, shaky, out-of-focus clip of one emerging from under my bed. Sure it looks like my brother with a werewolf mask, but come on, can't we just appreciate the curiosity factor of it all instead of just trying to debunk it?
"I would be much more interested in looking at the raw data and seeing if religiosity, education, and income have correlations with supernatural beliefs."
Since "religiosity" = a supernatural belief, I'd have to say there is a 1-to-1 correspondence there.
For years I was so scared by the monster in my bedroom that I slept in the living room.