Study shows that Bush supporters suppress awareness of unsettling information
Kevin Anderson is keeping an US election blog for the BBC Online website.
One entry from Sunday might be of interest to those here who believe that Bush supporters are off their gourd. A study was done that shows that maybe true.
The Program on International Policy Attitudes complied a study titled: The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters and here are some clips.
The text is from Anderson's report:
In light of reports over the past few months from the Senate Intelligence Committee and the heads of the Iraq Survey Group, David Kay and Charles Duelfer, the pollsters asked Bush and Kerry supporters what these reports said about weapons of mass destruction in pre-war Iraq.
Findings in the Duelfer report say that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction before the war, yet 56% of President Bush supporters still believe that most experts say that Iraq did indeed have WMD before the war.
But, amongst John Kerry supporters, 56% believe that most experts thought Iraq did not have WMD.
A majority of both Bush and Kerry supporters believe that if the US had known that Iraq had no WMD, then the US should not have gone to war. The figures being 58% of Bush supporters and 92% of Kerry supporters.
The president's supporters also believe the he has widespread backing for going to war in Iraq.
I might argue that a lot of people outside of Washington don't pay as much attention to these things as we do here, even though they are on issues as important as war and terrorism.
But the study's authors say: "Apparently, to avoid this cognitive dissonance, Bush supporters suppress awareness of unsettling information."
http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/Report10_21_04.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3949543.stm
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