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If you look closely at the Chapman survey, though, it didn't mention Alex Jones; the reported statistics were based on a survey without that particular priming.

by schoen 6y ago

If you look closely at the Chapman survey, though, it didn't mention Alex Jones; the reported statistics were based on a survey without that particular priming. The only mention of Alex Jones is a hypothetical example from Scott, which was not part of the survey, and the 33% is just > Respondents to the Chapman University Survey of American Fears were asked if “The government is concealing what they know about…the North Dakota crash.” A third of Americans (33%) think the government is concealing information about this invented event. Edit: I guess this phrasing (for each conspiracy) actually would be satisfied by the existence of any classified information about each topic, even classified information that wouldn't materially change the public's impression of the event. It's almost certainly true that "the government is concealing what they know about" the 9/11 attacks and the JFK assassination, for example, because there are some files and documents related to those matters that the government won't release publicly, which isn't the same as saying that those files and documents would change anyone's assessment of who is responsible for those events.

vonmoltke 6y ago
> Edit: I guess this phrasing (for each conspiracy) actually would be satisfied by the existence of any classified information about each topic, even classified information that wouldn't materially change the public's impression of the event. It's almost certainly true that "the government is concealing what they know about" the 9/11 attacks and the JFK assassination, for example, because there are some files and documents related to those matters that the government won't release publicly, which isn't the same as saying that those files and documents would change anyone's assessment of who is responsible for those events. That's my problem with the way the Chapman survey was worded. The prompt was overly broad. Answering "yes" for some of those "conspiracies" is reasonable, not an indication of conspiratorial thinking. It does, however, provide an upper bound for such thinking since a person who believes in conspiracies about those things (or are just general "black helicopter" types) are not going to answer in the negative (unless they think the poll is part of a secret government plot to out them...).

by schoen 6y ago

vonmoltke 6y ago

> Edit: I guess this phrasing (for each conspiracy) actually would be satisfied by the existence of any classified information about each topic, even classified information that wouldn't materially change the public's impression of the event. It's almost certainly true that "the government is concealing what they know about" the 9/11 attacks and the JFK assassination, for example, because there are some files and documents related to those matters that the government won't release publicly, which isn't the same as saying that those files and documents would change anyone's assessment of who is responsible for those events. That's my problem with the way the Chapman survey was worded. The prompt was overly broad. Answering "yes" for some of those "conspiracies" is reasonable, not an indication of conspiratorial thinking. It does, however, provide an upper bound for such thinking since a person who believes in conspiracies about those things (or are just general "black helicopter" types) are not going to answer in the negative (unless they think the poll is part of a secret government plot to out them...).