Most Americans oppose torture yet accept specific coercive interrogation methods by wide margins

Evidence

Polls indicate that representing the good American hero as the torturer changed public opinion on torture. A poll conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post in 2004 revealed that the majority of Americans—65 percent—are against torture, while 35 percent believe that torture is acceptable in some cases. However, it also indicated that the public made a distinction between torture and physical abuse. While the majority of respondents indicated that torture was unacceptable, 46 percent indicated that physical abuse is acceptable. Among the actions deemed acceptable were sleep deprivation (approved by 66 percent of respondents), hooding (57 percent), noise bombing (54 percent), threatening to shoot a suspect or expose him or her to extreme heat or cold (40 percent), punching and kicking (29 percent), and sexual humiliation (16 percent). — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 300 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Most Americans rejected torture while approving of its component techniques under milder labels — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 300; Most Americans accept unjust profiling to prevent terrorism. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 64; Coercive interrogations are staged as voluntary and formally consensual — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 980 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Most Americans rejected torture while approving of its component techniques under milder labels #corroborates (0.97) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 300