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One third of Americans believe in ghosts

Spooky survey

A Gallup poll has revealed that 32 per cent of all adult Americans believe in ghosts. Nineteen per cent aren't so sure, while a level-headed 48 per cent dismissed the idea outright.

Mildly interesting, we're sure you'll agree. The poll did, however, discover that 37 per cent of our American cousins say houses can be haunted (16 per cent not sure, 46 per cent don't be ridiculous).

Which seems to suggest that five per cent of those polled reckon otherworldly domestic activity can happen even though ghosts don't exist. Or may not exist. Possibly.

Anyway, the real interest in the survey comes with the political allegiance/paranormal credulity stats. Forty-two per cent of liberals say yes to ghosts, but that drops to a, er, conservative 25 per cent for conservatives. Moderates - damn their sitting-on-the-fence asses - position themselves comfortably between the two with 35 per cent.

Why pinko liberals should be more receptive to the Other Side is anyone's guess - unless they're hoping to contact a dead Kennedy via Ouija board for practical guidance on exactly how you wrest power from the Bush dynasty.

And finally, perhaps the most provocative figures of all - that belief in ghosts declines with age. Forty-five per cent of those between 18 and 29 vote yes to spirits, but this is just 22 per cent in the over-65s.

Strange, we think, because surely the rapidly-approaching footsteps of the Grim Reaper would provoke the hope that there must, surely, be something after we shrug off this mortal coil. Not in 70-year-old conservatives, though, obviously. ®

And the IT angle?

We tried, God alone knows we tried, to dredge up some spurious IT angle for this supernatural silliness. Then we gave up, as the above demonstrates.

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