Editing Moon landing conspiracy theories (section)

== Public opinion ==
{{See also|Moon landing conspiracy theories in popular culture}}

In a 1994 poll by ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 9% of the respondents said that it was possible that astronauts did not go to the Moon and another 5% were unsure.<ref name=":0">[[#Scheaffer|Scheaffer 2004]], pp. 226–227</ref> A 1999 [[Gallup Poll]] found that 6% of the Americans surveyed doubted that the Moon landings happened and that 5% of those surveyed had no opinion,<ref name="plait156">[[#Plait|Plait 2002]], p. 156</ref><ref name="Borenstein" /><ref name="gallup1">{{cite press release| url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/1993/Did-Men-Really-Land-Moon.aspx |access-date=August 14, 2009|title=Did Men Really Land on the Moon? |date=February 15, 2001| publisher=[[The Gallup Organization|Gallup]]}}</ref><ref name="gallup2">{{cite press release|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/3712/Landing-Man-Moon-Publics-View.aspx |access-date=August 14, 2009|title=Landing a Man on the Moon: The Public's View| first=Frank| last=Newport |date=July 20, 1999 |publisher=Gallup}}</ref> which roughly matches the findings of a similar 1995 ''Time/CNN'' poll.<ref name="plait156" /> Officials of the Fox network said that such skepticism rose to about 20% after the February 2001 airing of their network's television special, ''Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?'', seen by about 15 million viewers.<ref name="Borenstein">{{Cite news |title=Book to confirm moon landings |first=Seth |last=Borenstein |url=http://archive.deseretnews.com/archive/946348/Book-to-confirm-moon-landings.html |agency=[[Knight Ridder]] Newspapers |newspaper=[[Deseret News]] |location=Salt Lake City, UT |date=November 2, 2002 |access-date=August 13, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090726105516/http://archive.deseretnews.com/archive/946348/Book-to-confirm-moon-landings.html |archive-date=July 26, 2009}}</ref> This Fox special is seen as having promoted the hoax claims.<ref name="theage">{{cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/24/1040511043172.html |access-date=August 13, 2009 |title=One giant leap of imagination |date=December 24, 2002 |newspaper=[[The Age]] |location=Melbourne, Australia |agency=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref><ref name="newsweek">{{Cite news |title=American Beat: Moon Stalker |url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/65087/output/print |work=Newsweek.com |publisher=[[Newsweek]] |location=New York |date=September 15, 2002 |access-date=August 13, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206023002/http://www.newsweek.com/id/65087/output/print |archive-date=December 6, 2007}}</ref>

A 2000 poll conducted by the {{Interlanguage link|Public Opinion Foundation|ru|3=Фонд «Общественное мнение»}} (''ФОМ'')<!-- the ru version needs to be translated and interwiki linked on its English page. --> in Russia found that 28% of those surveyed did not believe that American astronauts landed on the Moon, and this percentage is roughly equal in all social-demographic groups.<ref name=":1">{{Cite press release |last=Петрова |first=А.С. |script-title=ru:БЫЛИ ЛИ АМЕРИКАНЦЫ НА ЛУНЕ? |trans-title=Were the Americans on the Moon? |date=April 19, 2000 |publisher=[[Public Opinion Foundation]] (ФОМ) |url=http://bd.fom.ru/report/cat/sci_sci/kosmos/of001605 |access-date=August 13, 2009 |language=ru}} Nationwide Russian survey of urban and rural population conducted on April 1, 2000. 1,500 respondents. Americans walked on the Moon? Overall results of poll: 51% yes; 28% no; 22% unsure.</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite web |url=http://bd.fom.ru/report/map/t001333 |script-title=ru:ИНОГДА ВЫСКАЗЫВАЕТСЯ МНЕНИЕ, ЧТО НА САМОМ ДЕЛЕ ВЫСАДКИ АМЕРИКАНСКИХ АСТРОНАВТОВ НА ЛУНУ НЕ БЫЛО. ВЫ ЛИЧНО ВЕРИТЕ ИЛИ НЕ ВЕРИТЕ, ЧТО АМЕРИКАНСКИЕ АСТРОНАВТЫ ДЕЙСТВИТЕЛЬНО ПОБЫВАЛИ НА ЛУНЕ? |date=April 5, 2000 |publisher=Public Opinion Foundation (ФОМ) |language=ru |access-date=April 30, 2013}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{cite web |url=http://bd.fom.ru/report/map/t001332 |script-title=ru:ЗНАЕТЕ ЛИ ВЫ, ЧТО-ТО СЛЫШАЛИ ИЛИ СЛЫШИТЕ СЕЙЧАС ВПЕРВЫЕ О ВЫСАДКЕ АМЕРИКАНСКИХ АСТРОНАВТОВ НА ЛУНУ ЛЕТОМ 1969 ГОДА? |date=April 5, 2000 |publisher=Public Opinion Foundation (ФОМ) |language=ru |access-date=April 30, 2013}}</ref> In 2009, a poll held by the United Kingdom's ''[[Engineering & Technology]]'' magazine found that 25% of those surveyed did not believe that men landed on the Moon.<ref name=":4">{{cite journal |last=Bizony |first=Piers |author-link=Piers Bizony |date=July 6, 2009 |title=It was a fake, right? |journal=[[Engineering & Technology]] |volume=4 |issue=12 |pages=24–25 |location=London |publisher=[[Institution of Engineering and Technology]] |doi=10.1049/et.2009.1202 |access-date=February 19, 2011 |url=http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2009/12/fake-right.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128204607/http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2009/12/fake-right.cfm |archive-date=January 28, 2011}}</ref> Another poll gives that 25% of 18- to 25-year-olds surveyed were unsure that the landings happened.<ref name=":5">{{cite journal |last=Kruesi |first=Liz |date=December 2009 |title=The Cosmic Grid |journal=[[Astronomy (magazine)|Astronomy]] |page=62 |location=Waukesha, WI |publisher=[[Kalmbach Publishing]] |issn=0091-6358}}</ref>

There are subcultures worldwide which advocate the belief that the Moon landings were faked. By 1977 the [[International Society for Krishna Consciousness|Hare Krishna]] magazine ''[[Back to Godhead]]'' called the landings a hoax, claiming that, since the [[Sun]] is {{convert|93|e6mi|abbr=unit|order=flip}} away, and "according to [[Hindu mythology]] the Moon is {{convert|800,000|mi|disp=sqbr}} farther away than that", the Moon would be nearly {{convert|94|e6mi|abbr=unit|order=out}} away; to travel that span in 91 hours would require a speed of more than a million miles per hour, "a patently impossible feat even by the scientists' calculations."<ref name="Goswami">{{cite journal |author=Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami |author-link=Satsvarupa dasa Goswami |date=May 1977 |title=Man on the Moon: A Case of Mass Brainwashing |url=http://back2godhead.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/123_1977_12-05.pdf |journal=[[Back to Godhead]] |location=Los Angeles |publisher=[[Bhaktivedanta Book Trust]] |volume=12 |issue=5 |pages=10–11, 13–14 |issn=0005-3643 |access-date=October 9, 2013}}</ref><ref>[[#Scheaffer|Scheaffer 2011]], p. 229</ref>

[[James Oberg]] of [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] said that the conspiracy theory is taught in many Cuban schools, both in Cuba and where Cuban teachers are loaned.<ref name="Fake Moon Flight' Myth 2003, pp. 23, 30" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Getting Apollo 11 Right |first=James |last=Oberg |author-link=James Oberg |url=https://abcnews.go.com/ABC2000/abc2000science/oberg2000.html |access-date=August 13, 2009 |work=ABC News |publisher=ABC |location=New York |date=July 1999|quote=I'm told that this is official dogma still taught in schools in Cuba, plus wherever else Cuban teachers have been sent (such as [[Sandinista]] Nicaragua and Angola). |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030402094521/https://abcnews.go.com/ABC2000/abc2000science/oberg2000.html |archive-date=April 2, 2003}}</ref> A poll conducted in the 1970s by the [[United States Information Agency]] in several countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa found that most respondents were unaware of the Moon landings, many of the others dismissed them as propaganda or science fiction, and many thought that it had been the Russians that landed on the Moon.<ref>[[#Oberg|Oberg 1982]], p. 97</ref>

In 2019, [[Ipsos]] conducted a study for [[C-SPAN]] to assess the level of belief that the 1969 Moon landing was faked. Six percent of respondents believed it was not real, but eleven percent of [[millennial]]s (reached adulthood in the early 21st century) were the most likely to believe it was not factual.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-07/c-span-space-exploration-07-10-2019_for_release.pdf |title=Attitudes Toward Space Exploration – Ipsos Poll on Behalf of C-SPAN – Belief in Authenticity of the 1969 Moon Landing |work=[[C-Span]] |date=July 10, 2019 |access-date=July 21, 2019}}</ref>

=== Summary of public opinion polls ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Dates
conducted
!Pollster
!Area and Demographics
!Sample
size
!Real
!Faked
!Unsure/No Opinion
!Link(s)
|-
|1994
|''[[The Washington Post]]''
|[[United States]]
!
|86%
|9%
|5%
|<ref name=":0" />
|-
|1999
|[[Gallup Poll]]
|[[United States]]
|
|89%
|6%
|5%
|<ref name="plait156" />
|-
|2000
|{{Interlanguage link|Public Opinion Foundation|ru|3=Фонд «Общественное мнение»}}
|[[Russia]]
|
|72%
|28%
| -
|<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />
|-
|2009
|''[[Engineering & Technology]]''
|
|
|75%
|25%
| -
|<ref name=":4" />
|-
|2009
|''[[Astronomy (magazine)|Astronomy]]''
|United Kingdom, 18-25 year olds
|
|75%
|25%
| -
|<ref name=":5" />
|-
|2019
|''[[C-SPAN]]/[[Ipsos]]''
|United States, [[Millennials]]
|
|89%
|11%
| -
|<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jackson |first=Chris |date=10 July 2019 |title=Attitudes Toward Space Exploration |url=http://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/cspan-space-exploration-2019 |access-date=19 October 2024 |website=Ipsos.com}}</ref>
|}