How many people in the USA and UK actually believe Michael Jackson was guilty? (Mini Thread)

USA

In 2005, Billboard reported that 70% of Americans believed Jackson was guilty, 15% said he was definitely or probably innocent. The other 15% was unsure.

In 2019, after Leaving Neverland aired, YouGov stated that it was now 48% believe guilty, 19% innocent, 33% unsure.

UK

While I couldn’t find any reliable data for how the UK felt in 2005, we can estimate about 75% thought guilty because the UK was always slightly harsher.

In 2019, YouGov reported that 51% of the UK believe he was guilty, roughly 12% say innocent and 37% are unsure.

Despite 51% of the UK believing Michael Jackson was guilty, most will keep listening. YouGov’s Michael Jackson profile has a 49% positive opinion, 30% negative and 20% neutral.

Note: sometimes percentages don’t add up to 100 perfectly because they’re being rounded. Ex. 49.4% 30.3% and 20.3% would translate to 49%, 30% and 20% in the poll.

The phrases “Michael Jackson guilty” & “Michael Jackson innocent” were compared in Google Trends and the guilty searches skyrocketed in 2005 during Jackson’s trial. But in March 2019, when Leaving Neverland aired, the innocent searches were slightly more than the guilty searches.

Conclusion: 70-75% of the USA&UK believed Jackson was guilty in 2005. In 15 years, that decreased to 48-51% and still remained at 48-51% even after Leaving Neverland aired. In 15 years, the people who believe innocent raised up roughly 5%. The tide has been & still is turning.

Note: Again this is only the USA and UK. We know the USA and UK were (and are) the harshest toward Michael Jackson. But I wasn’t able to find official statistics for anywhere else. From what I’ve seen and been told, most countries would have innocent as the majority.

Edit: For the UK’s 2019 statistics, it’s actually 11% innocent not 12%. Not like it changes anything or really matters because I did say “roughly” 12%. So currently the UK is 51% guilty, 11% innocent, 38% unsure.