--- On Thu, 4/23/09, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Americans sorta like torture if it works
> To: "lbo-talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Date: Thursday, April 23, 2009, 11:09 AM
> Dick Cheney’s pushback on torture
> this week is well-calibrated: It’s an issue on which
> public sentiment is somewhat more equivocal than President
> Obama’s own view. While most people oppose torture, that
> view is short of monolithic – and opposition softens if
> it’s presumed actually to work, as the former vice
> president argues.
>
> This has been the case for years: Ask people if they
> support or oppose the use of torture, a straight up or down
> question, and majorities oppose it. But ask it with
> gradations and opposition is lower. And attach a direct
> positive attribute – possibly saving lives, or even
> definitely saving them – and opposition goes lower still.
>
[WS:] That is hardly surprising - this kind of responses were observed in other areas that involve risk assessment, and they depend on the cognitive framing of the problems in terms of "gains" or "losses." Check out Kahneman & Tversky's work in behavioral economics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_theory.
Wojtek