Even before the congressional report at the end of June, a majority of Americans believed in intelligent life on planets other than Earth, according to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center.
The poll came before the congressional report was released, but it found 65% of U.S. adults believe in aliens on other planets and 51% believe the military sightings of unmanned aerial phenomenon (UAP) are likely evidence of intelligent alien life.
The poll also found 87% believe UAPs are not a national security threat at all (51%) or merely a minor one (36%).
"Some segments of the public are more likely than others to believe that intelligent life exists on other planets," Pew's release June 30 read. "This view is especially pronounced among younger Americans. About three-quarters (76%) of adults under age 30 say intelligent life exists on other planets, versus 57% of those 50 and older."
Among those believing in aliens, 69% see the military sightings as evidence.
Just 10% sees the UAP sightings as a major national security threat, according to the poll.
"In general, Americans are not inclined to assume that UFOs are hostile," Pew's release continued. "When asked for another best guess, 17% say UFOs are friendly, 7% say they are unfriendly, and 74% said they are neither.
"This pattern holds when looking only at adults who say that UFOs reported by people in the military are probably or definitely evidence of intelligent life outside Earth. Among the 51% of U.S. adults who say that military-reported UFOs are at least probably evidence of intelligent life outside Earth, 26% say UFOs are friendly, 7% say they are unfriendly, and 65% say neither."
The Pew Research Center polled 10,417 U.S. adults June 14-24 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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