A growing number of Americans are adhering to conspiratorial theses rejected by credible news sources: 40% of them, for example, say they believe COVID-19 was created in a laboratory in China, even though the consensus current scientist believes that the virus would come from an animal-to-human transmission.
The most recent NPR / Ipsos poll, conducted among 1,115 adults on December 21 and 22, also reports that a third of those polled believe that massive voter fraud allowed Joe Biden to defeat Donald Trump in the November presidential election. . The theory has been rejected in multiple ways by the system, Justice, and US election officials. Likewise, 39% of people believe that a “deep state” wants to destroy the incumbent president.
A sign that even the most eccentric theories such as that of Qanon are gaining ground among our neighbors to the south, 17% of respondents are convinced that politicians and the media are controlled by a pedosatanist elite who worship Satan and operate a child trafficking network for sexual purposes.
The same proportion of people polled (17%) maintain that humans do not have a huge impact on the climate, while all the studies of the last 30 years prove that human activities are the main reason for climate change.
According to Chris Jackson, an analyst for the firm Ipsos, these trends have been greatly amplified since the start of the pandemic. “More and more people are ready to say and believe things that correspond to their worldview, even if they have no basis in reality or in fact,” he said.
“What this poll really shows me is how willing people are to believe things that are ridiculous because they fit into a worldview that they want to believe,” Jackson added. .
Political tensions are cause for concern, as 73% of those polled expressed fears of a potential outbreak of violence in the next four years.
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