A new survey of 2,000 Americans has found that rising UFO news coverage is increasing belief in aliens, particularly among younger generations. The survey, conducted by Talker Research, asked participants whether recent UFO or UAP news coverage has changed their opinion on the topic.
Results show that 37% of respondents now believe more than they used to. More than half (54%) said their opinion on extraterrestrials has not changed, while 10% said the coverage has made them believe less.
Generational and Gender Differences
News coverage on UFOs or UAPs appears more likely to influence younger generations toward belief. Among Gen Z respondents, 54% said their belief has increased due to recent news stories, with the impact declining with age. Forty-five percent of millennials, just over a third of Gen X (36%), and 23% of baby boomers reported feeling similarly stirred toward believing more in the wake of recent news coverage.
Men are significantly more likely to feel that recent news coverage has increased their belief in aliens, with 43% saying so compared with 33% of women.
Reactions to Potential Alien Life
Should confirmation of intelligent alien life be revealed tomorrow, Americans are twice as likely to be curious (38%) as they are to be fearful (17%). Men were also nearly twice as likely as women to say they would be excited about the confirmation of alien life (20% versus 11%).
If governments were to announce that alien life definitively exists, 45% of respondents feel society is prepared for it. However, the majority (55%) feel society is not prepared to properly comprehend the existence of otherworldly beings.
Government Secrecy and Media Influence
That might also explain why the majority of those polled (60%) think governments know more about UFOs than they have publicly shared to date. Over half (54%) of the 2,000 polled feel movies and TV shows about aliens have made Americans more likely to believe intelligent extraterrestrial life exists. Although 27% say there is no correlation between alien-related TV and movies and belief levels, and 8% say it makes people less likely to believe.
