A first-of-its-kind study by a psychologist has explained why some Americans think that President Barack Obama is a Muslim.

People are most likely to accept such falsehoods, both consciously and unconsciously, when subtle clues remind them of ways in which the President is different from them, according to a research by Spee Kosloff and colleagues.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

A Pew Research Center poll in August 2010 found that 18 percent of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim – up from 11 percent in March 2009 – even though he’s a practicing Christian.

It’s the first comprehensive experimental study of the psychological factors that motivate Americans to believe the lies.

In four separate experiments (three before the election and one after), the researchers looked at both conscious and unconscious acceptance of political smears by mostly white, non-Muslim college students.

For the conscious trials, the participants were shown false blog reports arguing that Obama is a Muslim or a socialist or that John McCain is senile.

The unconscious trials involved gauging how rapidly subjects could identify smear-relevant words such as “Muslim” or “turban” after Obama’s name was presented subliminally.

They found that on an average, participants who supported McCain said there is a 56 percent likelihood Obama is a Muslim.

But when they were asked to fill out a demographic card asking for their own race, the likelihood jumped to 77 percent.

Kosloff argues that these judgments are irrational and suggests that they are possibly fueled by an “irresponsible” media culture.