Mindblowing new report on public opinion about torture. (Turns Out We Were Right, Again)

[kpete]

Wednesday, July 07, 2010


Tortured Memories

by digby

John Sides at The Monkey Cage discusses a mindblowing new report on public opinion about torture. Here's the opening paragraph of the report:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=6&fid=7819653&jid=PSC&volumeId=43&issueId=03&aid=7819652&fulltextType=DS&fileId=S1049096510000697

Many journalists and politicians believe that during the Bush administration, a majority of Americans supported torture if they were assured that it would prevent a terrorist attack….But this view was a misperception…we show here that a majority of Americans were opposed to torture throughout the Bush presidency…even when respondents were asked about an imminent terrorist attack, even when enhanced interrogation techniques were not called torture, and even when Americans were assured that torture would work to get crucial information. Opposition to torture remained stable and consistent during the entire Bush presidency. Even soldiers serving in Iraq opposed the use of torture in these conditions…a public majority in favor of torture did not appear until, interestingly, six months into the Obama administration.


.....................

The public opinion data from 2001-2009 is pretty unequivocal. See the paper for the requisite tables and graphs. It’s also worth noting that majorities oppose most specific methods of torture or “enhanced interrogation” even when those techniques are not labeled “torture.”

A recent survey we commissioned helps shine a light on this question. Psychologists describe a process of misperception—“false consensus”—whereby an individual mistakenly believes that his or her viewpoint represents the public majority…Our survey shows that this false consensus pervades the opinions of those who support torture, leading them to significantly overestimate the proportion of the public that agrees with them. Those people opposed to torture, in contrast, have remarkably accurate perceptions of the rest of the public.

But I think we've all learned that it pretty much doesn't matter what we actually believe, the narratives that are spun about such things by gasbags and politicians are seen as proxies for public opinion and we end up watching these atrocities unfold from afar with the sense that it's a trainwreck that nobody can stop from happening.

more:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/false-consensus-village-hypothesis.html
http://www.themonkeycage.org/2010/07/a_false_consensus_about_public.html
http://apsanet.org/content_70910.cfm

[RainDog]

1. I no longer believe it matters what the majority of Americans believe or want

to either party, sadly.

money talks too loudly in this nation for pols to hear people.

[provis99]

2. As of Nov 2009, we favor torture more than oppose it, according to the charts.

I'm not sure what you're getting at, unless you're being obtuse.

[EFerrari]

3. Prisoners at Bagram are still being abused or worse today. n/t