GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- There is little doubt that Americans perceive Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to be an act of war and that Americans widely favor a military response by the United States. Well before the FBI announced its progress in identifying several suspects Wednesday, Americans were generally confident that the U.S. government would be able to apprehend those responsible for the suicide bombers. Although polls conducted Tuesday night in the immediate aftermath of the attacks show Americans expressing a fairly high degree of confidence, more generally, in President George W. Bush, the military, and emergency response organizations handling of the crisis, about half the public believes that more could have been done to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their mission - particularly in the area of airport security. The surveys offer conflicting information about whether or not Americans perceive Tuesday's attacks as a watershed event that will permanently change the country.
CNN/USA Today/Gallup; ABC News/Washington Post; CBS News; and Ipsos-Reid all conducted nationwide surveys of between 400 and 619 national adults on the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 11. Using different questions, the four polls recorded many similar responses, but also provide different perspectives into public opinion in the aftermath of the attacks. A detailed review of findings from Tuesday's polls is presented below.
Fear of Terrorism Affecting You or Your Family
Roughly half of the nation's adults have a substantial amount of concern about the potential for terrorism afflicting their family at some point in the future. Both ABC and CBS find just under half of Americans saying they personally are worried about themselves, their family, or their neighborhood being victimized. Gallup's question offered Americans four levels of concern on this question and found 23% expressing a high degree of worry, with a total of 58% at least somewhat worried. According to Gallup's trends on this question, which date back to the April 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City, Americans are much more worried today about terrorism than in 1995 or at any time since. ABC's trends confirm this finding.
Ipsos-Reid asked Americans to identify which of five separate reactions they experienced most strongly in the immediate aftermath of the attack. These questions help to put terrorism in context with other reactions Americans were experiencing on Tuesday. Only 6% said that concern about their own personal safety was high on their list of emotions. This was dwarfed by the 82% who cited sorrow for the victims and their families, as well as a high number who cited anger and fear.
Likelihood of Future Terrorism
Americans are about evenly divided about the likelihood of more terrorism in the future. Gallup finds a majority of Americans (55%) believing that Tuesday's attacks represent only the beginning of a sustained terrorist campaign against the United States that "will continue for the next several weeks." ABC finds a similar number (49%) highly worried that "there will be more major terrorist attacks in this country" (although, ABC's question, unlike Gallup's, does not specify a time frame or suggest that future terrorism would be connected to what occurred Tuesday). Another 38% told ABC that they are "somewhat worried" about the possibility of future terrorism, leaving only 11% who are "not too worried" or "not worried at all."
An Act of War?
The American public clearly perceives that the United States has been the target of an act of war. In answer to the direct question, "Would you describe these attacks as an act of war against the United States, or not?," 86% of Americans told Gallup that they would. When given the alternative that the acts were an isolated terrorist incidence, as was the case in the Ipsos-Reid survey, a somewhat lower, but still substantial, 69% answered that the event was an act of war, while 21% saw it as isolated terrorism.
Confidence in U.S. Government Leadership
Gallup asked Americans specifically about their confidence in President George W. Bush (the poll was conducted prior to Bush's address to the nation) and found 45% "very confident" in his ability to handle the situation, and another 33% were somewhat confident. Only 11% were "not too confident," and 7% were "not confident at all."
Americans also express a fair amount of confidence in other dimensions of government leadership at this critical time. Ipsos-Reid found particularly high confidence in the U.S. military and emergency response organizations, with more than 80% of Americans saying they have "a great deal" or "quite a bit" of confidence in these groups. President Bush also ranks fairly high on this list, with 64% expressing confidence in his ability to handle the crisis -- similar to the 62% who have confidence in the FBI. Relatively little confidence was recorded for foreign countries from whom the United States gets support (45%) and U.S. anti-terrorism efforts (39%). However, the clear loser is airport security, for which only 19% of Americans have a high level of confidence.
Support for Military Reprisals
Several different questions were asked across the four surveys concerning the appropriate military actions for the United States to pursue in response to the terrorist attacks. Gallup offered respondents three options, and found the vast majority (92%) of Americans in support of the United States' launching military strikes, with only 4% opposed. However, most respondents (71%) opted for the more restrained approach of waiting for those responsible to be identified -- even if it takes months -- before conducting military strikes against them. Only 21% opted for conducting immediate military strikes against all known terrorist organizations even though it is still unclear who orchestrated the attacks.
ABC found 94% of Americans in support of military action against "the groups or nations responsible for the attacks," and 92% of this group would support military action even if it means "getting into a war." CBS found somewhat lower support for military strikes when a reference to the possible killing of innocent civilians was included in the question wording. In this context, just 66% of those interviewed told CBS that "the United States should take military action against whomever is responsible for the attacks, even if it means that innocent people are killed." One in five Americans oppose military strikes under these conditions.
In reference to President Bush's statement that the United States would make no distinctions between the terrorists involved and those who harbor the terrorists, 84% of Americans, according to ABC, support the United States taking military action against countries that assist or shelter terrorists, with just 11% opposed.
Chances of Catching Those Responsible
All polling conducted Tuesday night found that roughly half the American public is highly confident that those responsible for planning the attacks will be brought to justice. Another third or so are moderately confident, while only a handful are pessimistic about the prospect.
According to the Gallup survey, 52% think that it is very likely the government will be able to find and punish the people responsible; another 36% think this is somewhat likely, while just 9% think it is unlikely.
ABC and CBS found results almost identical to Gallup's, with 54% very confident that the U.S. government would find and punish those responsible, according to ABC, and 53% very confident that the government will catch the people who planned the attacks, according to CBS.
Impact of Terrorism on United States
Will the Tuesday attacks become a watershed event that will forever change the way in which Americans look at and deal with the world around them? Questions by two survey organizations, Gallup and Ipsos-Reid, offer different perspectives in answer to this question. Gallup finds Americans evenly divided in answer to the question, "Do you think Americans will permanently change the way they live, or not?" About half (49%) believe that Americans will be permanently changed, while 45% disagree. The Ipsos-Reid survey asked "Looking ahead, do you tend to think the events are a turning point that will fundamentally change things forever or, once these events pass, things will return to normal." Most respondents (74%) told Ipsos-Reid that the terrorist attack represents a permanent turning point for the country; only 21% think that things will eventually return to normal.
In response to a specific question about airline travel, close to half of Americans (48%) tell Gallup that they are less willing to fly on airplanes as a result of the attack.
Americans' Personal Reaction
Both CBS and Ipsos-Reid attempted to document the personal emotional response of Americans to the attack. Ipsos-Reid found that the primary emotion is sorrow for the victims and their families, a feeling shared by 82% of respondents. Anger ranks a distant second, with 42% saying they felt this way. Somewhat smaller numbers -- 34% and 31%, respectively -- say a desire for retribution and fear about future attacks are high on their list of emotions. As noted, only 6% say that concern about their own personal safety is among the top two emotions they are feeling. An open-ended question by CBS finds shock to be the most common reaction.
Could the Attack Have Been Prevented?
A sizable percentage of Americans perceive that the U.S. government could have done more to have prevented the terrorist attacks. The ABC poll asked, "Do you think the U.S. government did all it reasonably could do to try to prevent these attacks, or could it have done more?" Americans were divided , with 43% saying the United States did all it could and 44% saying it could have done more. However, CBS probed this issue further and found that a majority of Americans (56%) believe that government intelligence agencies should have been able to detect this plot in advance, and 57% think that tighter airport security measures could have prevented the attack.
Sizing Up the Attack
Americans clearly feel the emotional enormity of Tuesday's event. In answer to a question asked by Gallup, "Do you think this is -- or is not -- the most tragic news event in your lifetime?," 87% of Americans responded that it is. CBS asked Americans to think about this week's terrorism in comparison to the attack on Pearl Harbor and found 60% saying that the comparison is an appropriate one, with only 28% disagreeing.
Survey Methods
The results of the Gallup survey are based on telephone interviews with 619 national adults, aged 18+, conducted Sept. 11, 2001. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. Polls conducted entirely in one day, such as this one, are subject to additional error or bias not found in polls conducted over several days.
