Survey Says is a weekly series rounding up the most important polling trends or data points you need to know about, plus a vibe check on a trend that’s driving politics or culture.
From vaccine quackery and Tylenol panic to climate change denial and the erosion of the nation’s public health apparatus, the Trump administration may be the most aggressively anti-science in modern American history. But the sad truth is, large portions of America have long rejected science in favor of believing in some of the most absurd things you can imagine.
Like witches.
In May, Gallup polled the public’s belief in eight paranormal phenomena, and while Americans are most skeptical about the existence of witches, only 60% don’t believe in them. Meanwhile, 1 in 4 adults believes that witches exist, and another 15% aren’t sure if they do.
On top of that, roughly half of Americans believe in or are not sure about the existence of various far-fetched mental abilities, like being able to predict the future, communicate telepathically, and hear and/or talk with the dead. Over 2 in 5 believe in or aren’t sure about astrology. And Americans are split on the existence of ghosts, with 39% believing in them, 42% disbelieving, and 19% not being sure.
Two other beliefs have a more direct tie to religious faith. Forty-nine percent believe in or aren’t sure about reincarnation. And 48% believe in psychic or spiritual healing, while 19% aren’t sure and only 32% don’t buy it.
Gallup finds that 34% of Americans believe in at least three of these paranormal phenomena, and among that 34%, the average person believes in five. But while the data firm downplays these findings with the headline “Paranormal Phenomena Met With Skepticism in U.S.,” the data actually shows the public is largely open to believing in things with zero scientific basis.
This speaks to a larger issue of Americans discarding science.
For instance, Gallup finds that only 62% of Americans believe humans are driving climate change, despite there being overwhelming evidence of that fact. Much of that doubt is tied to a larger societal distrust of experts. For instance, only 29% of Americans place “a great deal” of trust in climate scientists to give full and accurate information on climate change, according to a 2023 Pew study. Meanwhile, 45% trust those experts only “some,” “a little,” or not at all.
The odd thing is, despite the Democratic Party’s platform being more grounded in science and despite their overall higher trust in scientists, Democrats are about as likely as Republicans to believe in the paranormal, according to Gallup. Other surveys find Republicans slightly more likely to believe in some paranormal entities, such as ghosts or demons, but when it comes to paranormal abilities, even those surveys find the parties with similar levels of belief.
However, in Gallup’s data, independents are slightly more likely than either Democrats or Republicans to believe in paranormal phenomena. And that holds across all eight types that Gallup asked about, though some results are within the margin of error.
Still, if independents are a little more prone to believing in the paranormal, it could help explain why they made up the base of support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s independent bid for president 2024. Kennedy, now the health secretary, has long been a rabid conspiracy theorist. Most known for his anti-vaccine activism, he’s also endorsed ideas as batty as the chemtrails conspiracy, which falsely claims airplane contrails are really chemicals the government is releasing to poison us and/or control our minds. RFK Jr.’s anti-science positions just might not have turned off many of those voters.
That said, a candidate can still go too far. And in 2010, one did.
That year, Christine O'Donnell, a tea-party Republican, ran to fill Joe Biden’s Senate seat after he was elected vice president. During the campaign, TV host Bill Maher unearthed footage of O'Donnell appearing on his 1990s talkshow and declaring she had “dabbled” in witchcraft.
“I never joined a coven. But … I dabbled into witchcraft,” she said in the footage. “I hung around people who were doing these things. I'm not making this stuff up. I know what they told me they do.”
After this resurfaced, she released a jaw-dropping campaign ad in which she declares, speaking directly to camera, “I’m not a witch.”
About a month later, in an election that saw Democrats got routed up and down the ballot, she lost her race to Democrat Chris Coons by over 16 percentage points
But perhaps she was telling the truth in the 1990s. Perhaps her dabblings in witchcraft imbued her with the ability to predict the future, because the very next year she released a memoir whose title presaged our entire political moment.
“Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again.”
Any updates?
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There was too much paranormal polling to fit into the article above, so here are some other interesting findings: Only 83% of Americans say vampires and werewolves don’t exist; 7% claim they’ve personally seen a demon, with another 9% not sure if they have; 4 in 10 think some UFOs that have been spotted were alien spacecraft; and 51% think those selling a home should be legally required to disclose if they believe the house is haunted.
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Millions turned out for last weekend’s “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda, and despite the GOP’s lie-filled messaging campaign, 48% of Americans approve of the protests, according to YouGov. That even includes 14% of Republicans. Meanwhile, just 32% disapprove of the protests, with most disapproval coming from the right (67% of Republicans disapprove).
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Bad news for people who dislike extrajudicial killings: A plurality of Americans (48%) support the Trump administration lethally striking boats suspected of smuggling drugs, according to the latest YouGov/Economist poll. Thirty-eight percent oppose the strikes.
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If Democrats somehow beat the odds and retake the Senate next year, it may be because of one traditionally red state: Alaska. A new poll from Alaska Survey Research finds Democrat Mary Peltola leading incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan, 48% to 46%, among likely voters. Peltola, a former congresswoman, has not announced a run, but she is being courted by national Democrats. And hey, if our second-newest state gives Democrats a vote in the Senate, maybe the party will finally recognize its best path to correcting the chamber’s conservative bias is to create even more new states.
Vibe check
To keep with our spooky theme, let’s talk horror movies—and not the one playing at the White House. (Rimshot, cymbal.) No, we’re talking masked killers, possessed children, psychopathic cannibals—you know, fun stuff.
Americans are relatively averse to horror films, with only 50% saying they “like” or “love” them—a lower share than for any other genre of film—according to data from YouGov.
Horror is by far the most polarizing genre, with equal shares (22%) saying they “love” and “hate” scary movies. It’s about three times as polarizing as science fiction, fantasy, and western films, which are tied for the second-most polarizing, according to the Daily Kos Movie-Genre Polarization Index.™️(Like our Food Polarization Index,™️ the methodology for this can be found in the chart’s footnote.)
That said, 67% of Americans say they watch horror, according to other YouGov data.
About 2 in 3 Americans have seen the five most-viewed films: “The Exorcist,” “The Silence of the Lambs, “Halloween,” “Frankenstein,” and “Friday the 13th.” And “The Silence of the Lambs” earns the top marks, with 42% of Americans saying they “love” it and another 43% saying they “like” it—almost universal acclaim.
The most polarizing film in YouGov’s survey is “The Blair Witch Project,” a personal favorite of mine. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” comes in a close second.
Andrew Mangan October 27, 2025 at 12:00AM From Daily Kos
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