Ninety-four percent of adult Americans have heard at least one of the ridiculous and false rumors chasing John McCain and Barack Obama on the campaign trail, according to a Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University poll.
About 19 of every 20 adult Americans have heard at least one obviously false rumor about the major presidential candidates.
"Rumors are a very powerful form of communication. They resonate our fears," said rumor expert Michael Kamins, a marketing professor at New York's Stoneybrook University.
"The good news is that they are only going to influence people who are indifferent or undecided in the presidential race. Since there aren't many people like that right now, rumors aren't going to make much difference," he said.
The pervasiveness of ugly rumors this year is remarkable. Only 6 percent of the adults in the poll said they hadn't heard any of the six rumors included in the study. These six rumors were chosen for the poll because they have been widely acknowledged and refuted by the campaigns and independent experts.
Not surprisingly, Republicans were more likely than other voters to hear false things about Obama, while Democrats disproportionately heard the worst about McCain.
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