By Tim Binnall
An enlightening new survey exploring Americans' opinions on UFO disclosure appears to upend the longstanding fear that revealing 'we are not alone' would cause social upheaval. Produced by the group Big Data Poll, the project "interviewed 3,005 adults and 2,976 registered voters nationwide" over the first three days in July. When asked how "society and civilization would change" if the public were "told intelligent life exists and has been visiting planet Earth," approximately 55% of respondents opined that it would be a positive development. Remarkably, 27% of those polled felt that the fallout from disclosure would be "insignificant" with "no major changes" to our world, and only around 18% posited that the revelation would result in negative consequences.
Delving further into the findings of the survey, participants were also asked about various "areas of society" that might be impacted by an ET revelation. Unsurprisingly, the proverbial big winners were science and technology with 53% and 55% of respondents, respectively, suggesting those realms would be positively affected by such an event. Conversely, participants opined that the most negatively impacted areas would be religion and politics. However, even in that instance, the pessimistic perspective only charted at 23% for the former and 20% for the latter. Indicative of the overall uncertainty surrounding the subject, the option of 'neutral' was the overwhelming choice for all of the various fields, with the choice being picked by participants 34 to 47% of the time.
Interestingly, when participants were asked how society would react to disclosure, approximately 35% suggested there would be "a short disruption followed by positive developments. Meanwhile, a mere 6.5% envisioned "a complete breakdown in civil society and political order." Similarly, when presented with the statement "human beings are ready for and can handle disclosure," a staggering 53% agreed with that sentiment and only "about 3 in 10" disagreed. "The data painted a clear enough picture to state with confidence that stereotypical assumptions are wrong," Big Data Poll director Rich Baris declared, musing that "previous doomsday predictions in the event of a hypothetical alien disclosure scenario are outdated. That is, assuming they were ever true."