{"id":10230,"date":"2020-04-08T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/nearly-three-in-ten-americans-believe-covid-19-was-made-in-a-lab\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T01:16:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T06:16:38","slug":"nearly-three-in-ten-americans-believe-covid-19-was-made-in-a-lab","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2020\/04\/08\/nearly-three-in-ten-americans-believe-covid-19-was-made-in-a-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly three-in-ten Americans believe COVID-19 was made in a lab"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"About<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

As news and misinformation about the\u00a0COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>\u00a0has spread, many Americans have encountered\u00a0conflicting narratives<\/a>\u00a0about how the new coronavirus originated. Scientists have determined the virus\u00a0came about naturally<\/a>,\u00a0but\u00a0there is some uncertainty<\/a>\u00a0about how it first infected people.<\/p>\n\n

While a plurality of Americans (43%) say the new coronavirus most likely came about naturally, nearly three-in-ten (29%) say it most likely was created in a lab, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted from March 10 to 16, 2020, as part of the Center\u2019s nearly yearlong Election News Pathways project<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Around a quarter of adults (23%) say it is most likely that the current strain of coronavirus was developed intentionally in a lab; another 6% say it was most likely made accidentally<\/em> in a lab. A quarter say they aren\u2019t sure where the virus originated.<\/p>\n\n

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How we did this<\/h1>\n\n

To explore the extent to which misinformation has made its way into the news people get about the COVID-19 outbreak, we focused on the belief of some Americans that the virus was created in a lab. We used data from a survey of 8,914 U.S. adults conducted March 10 to 16, 2020, as part of the Center\u2019s nearly yearlong Election News Pathways project<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

All survey participants are members of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel, a nationally representative online survey panel. Panelists were recruited by telephone or mail so that nearly every U.S. adult has a known chance of being selected. The data is weighted to further ensure it reflects the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.<\/p>\n\n

Here are the questions asked<\/a> for this report, along with responses, and its methodology<\/a>. Visit our interactive data tool<\/a> to access the data on the coronavirus pandemic and other issues related to news and the election.\n<\/p>\n\n

Americans differ by age, education level and race and ethnicity when it comes to who believes that the virus was created in a lab:<\/p>\n\n