Guilt at the Movies

Sooner or later, all Americans will be written into the record of this age of statistics. Last week it was the moviegoer, buttonholed by professional pollsters in a survey prepared for LIFE. Splitting their subjects into three groups--frequent moviegoers (twice a month or more), moderate (three to twelve times a year), infrequent (twice a year or less)--the pollsters put together a mathematical profile:

P: Income seems to have no bearing, but the frequent moviegoer is more likely to be a Jew than a Catholic or a Protestant; he has had, as a rule, more education than his stay-at-home fellow, and more often than not he lives in an apartment house.

P: Although 49% of moviegoers agree that movies have improved during the past decade, 81% agree that improved TV programs tend to keep them out of movie theaters. However often they indulge in the movies, though, the poll's subjects all seem to spend the same amount of time at their television sets: 14 1/2 hrs. a week.

P: The more highly educated, i.e., frequent, moviegoers see some social stigma attached to their pastime. They would be tempted to lie rather than admit how often they go to the movies.

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