Religion
In reply to the discussion: Our brains have evolved to look for patterns and assign meaning, even when none exist. [View all]Jim__
(14,074 posts)The first is that you are using far too little evidence - a halloween poll about ghosts - to draw far too big of a conclusion about the general population.
The second point is that I can take this simple example of your seeing a general pattern where there is insufficient evidence to draw any general conclusion and draw the same conclusion about you that you're drawing about the general population of the US - and I can even claim that it's a valid conclusion; but generalizing about you based on that conclusion would be a leap. General conclusions about even one person based on a small bit of information is a leap, general conclusions about whole populations based on small bits of information is just illogical.
As for taking any issue up with Gallup, I haven't seen Gallup draw this broad conclusion: in contemporary America, the general population is far more prone to see nonexistent patterns than to be overly skeptical based on any of his polls.