Interesting study results...not something I'd have guessed.
http://scienceblog.com/38014/why-americans-believe-obama-is-a-muslim/
http://scienceblog.com/38014/why-americans-believe-obama-is-a-muslim/
On average, participants who supported McCain said there is a 56 percent likelihood Obama is a Muslim. But when they were asked to fill out a demographic card asking for their own race, the likelihood jumped to 77 percent. Kosloff said this shows that simply thinking about a social category that differentiated participants from Obama was enough to get them to believe the smear.
...
Kosloff said the increase in belief that Obama is Muslim likely reflects a growing disenchantment with his presidency a sense that people feel Obama is not on their side.
When people are unsatisfied with the president whether its the way hes handling the economy, health care of Afghanistan our research suggests that this only fuels their readiness to accept untrue rumors, Kosloff said.
As his job rating goes down, suggesting that people feel like hes not ideologically on their side, we see an increase in this irrational belief that hes a Muslim, he added. Unfortunately, in America, many people dislike Muslims so theyll label Obama as Muslim when they feel different from him.