Today’s World Public Opinion survey on torture is quite fun. Respondents were put into three categories: “No torture at all”; “Limited use of torture to save innocent lives”; and “Torture should generally be allowed”.

Thirty-one percent of Americans said that torture should be allowed to save lives–five points higher than the international average–whereas the French, Spanish and Brits were the most against it under any circumstance.

Those Europeans might be being slightly dishonest: surely most people, if faced with the proverbial “ticking bomb”, would be less inclined to rule out inflicting physical harm.

Since the last such survey, support for torture against terrorists has risen dramatically in several countries: India (from 32% to 59%), Nigeria (39% to 54%), Turkey (24% to 51%), and South Korea (31% to 51%). Substantial increases also occurred in Egypt (25% to 46%) and the United States (36% to 44%).

This, the report observes, can be linked to increased public fear of terrorism:

India has endured attacks attributed to Kashmiri separatists and Turkey has been plagued by Kurdish rebels. South Koreans underwent a six-week hostage drama in July and August 2007 after Taliban rebels in Afghanistan kidnapped 23 Christian volunteers and then executed two of them. And the US public receives a steady stream of news reports about terrorist attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Perhaps one might add–somewhat trivially–the worldwide influence of the TV series 24, which glorifies the torture of terrorists in extremis. (Fox outsourced 24 to India in 2005.)

The report’s key chart also indicates a bizarre anomaly:

If correct, that means the Chinese rank second-lowest (10 percent) in supporting torture in exceptional circumstances, but are joint-top (18 percent) in endorsing the use of torture generally. This is either a mistake, or the Chinese attitude to human cruelty is most peculiar.