As many as 35% of Britons believe that the Moon landings were fake? apparently so, thanks to a survey commissioned by the people behind the X-files movie.
I don’t believe it. No, really, I just don’t believe it. People are cleverer and more discriminating than that. It’s well known that these surveys – or any piece of research – is strongly influenced by the form the question is in. I can’t find the exact questions used for this survey anywhere (I’ll send an email to the PR company, but I strongly suspect it will do no good) but I’ll bet you anything the question was phrased as something like ‘Some people believe there is evidence to support the following theories. Which of them do you agree with?’
Seemingly fair, but enough to access the unconscious bias that makes us want to agree with the person we’re speaking to. If some people believe these things, then perhaps there is evidence after all and I’d better just say yes. The same survey found that 3% of people believe that ‘The world is run by dinosaur-like reptiles’ and that – the belief and the number – sound like rubbish to me.
1/3 of Brits are gullible? Can’t be. | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine on July 31, 2008
[...] And certainly not this. My buddy Chris Lintott points out a recent survey — sponsored by 20th Century Fox to promote the new X-Files flick — that lists a bunch of conspiracy theories, and the percentages of British adults who believe in them. The problem here is two-fold: the questions weren’t listed, and neither are the error bars (though 1000 adults were surveyed indicating a Poissonian standard deviation of about 3%). [...]
Dave Tipper on July 31, 2008
Hi Chris
Our local group recently held an evening as part of a larger event in our area, after our talk i was asked at least 30 times about the moon landings, nearly everyone who came up thinks they were hoaxed, some even think that the recent images from mars were taken in the sahara desert, the face on mars is indeed real and that aliens are visiting us all the time…its just the way of today really, everyone thinks there are conspiracy theories about everything.
Dave
Ron Hager on August 1, 2008
Hi Chris
My early 20’s grandson is convinced that the moon and Mars landings are all hoaxes. He said that the majority of his friends agree with him that all of this is part of a huge conspiracy by the government.
Yet he and they all are convinced of the truth of the government’s claim of WMD’s in Iraq.
How does one argue with the insanity that it is easier to fake science than it is to fake politics and religion?
Ron
madge on August 1, 2008
I’m not sure it is gullibility. More that it is our default position not to trust ANYTHING that ANYONE in authority tells us. We are skeptical by nature but some folks just think that means EVERYTHING we are told is baloney. It’s lazy thinking.
Brock on August 1, 2008
I do not know any adults that seriously think that the moon landings were a hoax but I do hear it time and again from the younger generation. Could it be that they have learned not to trust authority? I wonder if this present government has reinforced this disbelief culture with their spin, spin and spin again tactics?
Alice Sheppard on August 1, 2008
I think Madge and Brock have a point about blanket scepticism. It’s well deserved. Although I suspect boredom comes into it as well and some of these people surveyed may have just been desperate for something to talk about. Who was actually surveyed and in what circumstances is another question I’d ask.
A couple of years ago the government did a survey whose aim was to prove that the majority of people wanted “choice” in the NHS rather than good care, i.e. for the NHS to be scrapped. The way the questions were worded would have meant that would have been the result no matter what people actually said. According to one Independent reader, “it wouldn’t have passed if it was an A level psychology assignment”. Who is asking the question and what they want to do with the results has a massive effect if you don’t do things properly.
Do let us know what the PR company e-mailed back, Chris, if anything.
Robert Simpson on August 1, 2008
I don’t believe it either. If it is true, I may leave the country…
IVAN SIMIC on August 1, 2008
Hi Chris,
I stumbled upon your blog via Bad Astronomy.
To paraphrase Albert Einstein: There are two things infinite in the universe — space, and human stupidity; but I am not sure of the former.
Rob on August 2, 2008
Hi Chris,
Well, I share your disbelief that significant numbers of our fellow citizens believe the moon landings were hoaxes. Indeed, the only people I know who have even hinted at disbelief refer immediately, in defence of their statement, to some survey or other that suggests that ‘people’ do disbelieve the landings.
I guess the answer is to fight back with a well constructed and unbiased survey. Surely there must be suitable academics and students to construct and conduct such a survey?
If a truly unbiased survey reveals no significant belief we have evidence to use in rebuttal whenever someone trots out this guff -and if it does reveal a widespread belief – well, at least we know the size of the problem!
A thought… Rob
erika on August 3, 2008
A few days ago, a friend of mine asked me the same question if the moon landing was true. I told him yes and discussed a few things why it was indeed true. No matter how much convincing the evidence are, he won’t agree. Maybe it has something to do with how much a person knows about science.
sysboy on August 3, 2008
“We are skeptical by nature but some folks just think that means EVERYTHING we are told is baloney.”
I think it’s actually the other way around, people will believe almost anything so conspiracy theorists, fraudsters and crackpots have it easy. Just look at astrology, religion, alien landings, bigfoot, nessie, homeopathy, fairies, santa, wmds, spirits, life after death, martians, egyptian mummy curses, witchcraft, telepathy and that carrots make you see better in the dark.
If anything the default response is to believe. That or people want some excitement in their lives
The only way you can combat it is through education and ridicule.
Alice Sheppard on August 4, 2008
“The fact that a belief is widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd” – Bertrand Russell.
http://www.bracil.net/edward/library/Russell.html
John Goodman on August 7, 2008
Interesting that neither you nor your contributors put forward any scientific evidence for the validity of the moon landings.
Like it or not, you’re seen as a BBC journalist, and the BBC is seen as an agent of the Nanny State, preaching and spinning and patronising until no-one wants to believe in anything.
chrislintott on August 7, 2008
Here you go
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html
That should deal with most of the objections; please let me know if you’d prefer peer-reviewed papers.
I’ll leave your comments about the BBC alone, but ‘preaching and spinning and patronising’ as a description of what I do? Preaching, perhaps, in favour of astronomy and science, but ’spinning and patronising’? Please.
Alice Sheppard on August 7, 2008
Has anyone done a survey to find out the percentage of people who see Chris as a BBC agent, or the percentage of people who see the BBC as an agent of the Nanny State etc etc? Even this survey didn’t generalise.
zofia magrian on August 7, 2008
Your e-mail to the PR company is like my email
to a guy who published a book saying the world will end in 2012 because mankind was only meant to exist 6000 years and it’s over, we’re doomed hehe. I used all the common sense and scientific arguments to say he should be ashamed to even mention it in public and I never got an answer. Nobody should believe that but still the damn book sells and there will always be people who believe stuff like that. I wonder who they asked by the way. People over and under what age. But yeah I think the number is overestimated in favour of the X-files box office too…
John Goodman on August 7, 2008
I attributed those activities to the BBC, Chris.
If you feel besmirched by the association, then I understand.
(How did you like being patronised? Rather good, I thought).
chrislintott on August 8, 2008
I notice you didn’t comment on the moon landings.
John Goodman on August 8, 2008
Touche.
Did I say I doubted the landings?
I doubt we could get there now, but I don’t doubt we could do it when folk worked hard and intellect was respected, before the PC brigade had achieved their deserved Utopia.
chrislintott on August 8, 2008
I’d taken this:
Interesting that neither you nor your contributors put forward any scientific evidence for the validity of the moon landings.
as indicating you didn’t believe we’d landed on the Moon (we, of course, standing for mankind – or should that be personkind?). I’m delighted that isn’t the case. I think the reasons Apollo succeeded are many and varied. They include hard work and intellect, but also the vast amount of money spent on it. I don’t think political correctness has anything to do with the debate, but each to his own.