Most Americans Comfortable With Use of Full Body Scans at Airports

A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Jan. 5-6 says 78 percent of Americans approve of their use.

Gallup asked the question this way: "The full body scan would show a graphic image of a person's body underneath his or her clothes. The image would be viewed only by federal screeners in a separate, private room. Do you approve or disapprove of U.S. airports using the full body scan on passengers?"

A poll by CNN/Opinion Research conducted Jan. 8-10 came up with a similar result, with 79 percent saying the scanners should be used.

In the USA Today/Gallup poll, 48 percent of those surveyed said they would not feel uncomfortable at all undergoing the scans, along with another 19 percent who said they not feel too uncomfortable. Ten percent would feel very uncomfortable and 22 percent somewhat uncomfortable.

Women would feel more uncomfortable than men. Forty-one percent of women would feel very or somewhat uncomfortable compared to 26 percent for men. Seventy-four percent of men were in the category of not feeling too uncomfortable or not feeling uncomfortable at all, compared to 58 percent of women.

The poll asked whether passengers were more comfortable or not with the alternative of a pat-down by a security agent, and 70 percent said they were more uncomfortable with the pat-down than the full body scan. The CNN poll found 82 percent who prefer to be scanned compared to 15 percent who were more comfortable with a manual search.

USA Today reported that body-scanning machines were being deployed at 10 of the nation's busiest airports.