By Tim Binnall
An enlightening new Gallup poll exploring Americans' thoughts on UFOs found that nearly half of the participants believe the phenomenon has a prosaic explanation rather than being something alien. The survey was reportedly conducted last month using a pool of 1,200 adults from throughout the United States. When offered the choice between UFOs being "alien spacecraft" or the result of "human activity on Earth or natural phenomenon," 49% picked the prosaic option, 37% backed the proverbial extraterrestrial hypothesis, and 13% had no opinion. Gallup noted that skepticism surrounding the ET explanation actually fell 11% from a 2019 survey in which 60% of participants were in the non-alien camp.
In other findings from the poll, 17% reported having "personally seen something they thought was a UFO." Adding weight to the adage seeing is believing, witnesses to the phenomenon were 61% more likely to opine that some aerial anomalies could be alien craft. On the subject of a potential UFO cover-up, a staggering 78% of the participants opined that the government is withholding information about the phenomenon from the public. That number is somewhat remarkable in that, despite a bevy of file releases from the government this summer, the percentage of people who believe 'the powers that be' are keeping UFO secrets increased by 10% from a 2019 poll on the subject.