Cognitive bias is a general term that is used to describe many observer effects in the human mind, some of which can lead to perceptual distortion,
inaccurate judgment, or illogical interpretation - Encyclopedia
This data, collected by WorldOpinionPoll reveals some fascinating information. You find the most people thinking that Israel was behind 9/11 in Egypt,
Jordan and Palestine...who traditionally have their issues with Israelis and hence tend to view Israel through those lenses. In contrast to that, in
Germany you hardly have anyone believing it was the Israelis, which shows how skeptical Germans have become (because of WWII) of criticizing Jews.
The strongest believers of the U.S. Government being behind 9/11 are found in Mexico and Turkey, which is no surprise considering these countries
traditional skepticism regarding America. The polled countries that were most U.S. friendly are the UK, Kenya and Taiwan which is, again, not such a
big surprise.
"Al Qaeda did it" somewhat surprisingly is the overwhelming majority opinion in Kenya and Nigeria, possibly indicating a lack of alternative sources
of information in those countries. The overwhelming "I dont know" found in China is possibly due to a lack of information or interest in general.
Not shown in the graph is Pakistan where only 2% responded that the attacks were carried out by Al-Qaeda and 27% responded that America did it.
One thing this shows is that the "official version" and the "mainstream version" is not the overwhelming majority in most places. In Pakistan, Egypt
and Jordan the "Official Version" is a
minority view whereas the conspiracy-version is the
majority view.
We all tend to distort our views according who we like and dislike. The Taiwanese are crazy about Americans so the majority there say "It wasnt an
Inside Job". Many in Mexico are not fans of America, so they'll tend more to the "Inside Job" theory.
I believe that in order to arrive at the truth we have to move beyond positive bias and negative bias and look at the facts coldly and without
emotion, with no intention to prove or disprove any of our preconceptions.
There is more quite amazing statistical data here:
911 Opinion Polls.
Looking forward to hearing your views.
edit on 24-5-2011 by Skyfloating because: (no reason given)