Almost everybody believes aliens do exist — however most are too embarrassed to confess it
University eggheads have revealed 95% of us believe in ETs but most are too embarrassed to admit it. The research found that even top academics, doctors and scientists reckon there is life in galaxies far away.
New research has found that almost everyone is a believer of aliens (stock)(Image: Getty Images)
If you are firm in the belief that aliens exist, you are not alone. This is because almost everyone on the planet is actually convinced aliens are real, including even the most smart people in society.
University eggheads have revealed 95% of us believe in ETs but most are too embarrassed to admit it. The research found that even top academics, doctors and scientists reckon there is life in galaxies far away.
Brainiacs from Harvard University in the US and Reichman University in Israel quizzed 6,114 highly-educated folk with degrees and doctorates. Most were based in the UK, US, Spain and Canada.
The study found 95% are believers, while just 1% reckon little green men are fantasy. However the group estimated that less than half, 48%, of their peers would be willing to share their belief publicly.
The researchers said: “Beliefs about extra-terrestrial intelligence existence remain socially constrained despite near-universal private acceptance. Concerns about appearing unscientific, particularly among educated people, may suppress expression.
“The association of extra-terrestrial intelligence beliefs with fringe communities and conspiracy theories creates reputation risk. This misperception creates a self-perpetuating cycle: individuals remain silent about their beliefs, interpreting others’ silence as sceptics.”
The study — reported in Cornell University’s ArXiv science journal — termed the hidden viewpoints as people staying in the “cosmic closet”. It comes after last month one of Britain’s top space scientists declared she is “absolutely convinced” there are aliens out there and will be discovered inside the next half a century.
Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, from University College London’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, said she expects a “positive detection” of life on another planet by 2075. Meanwhile Earthlings remain hopeful to find some proof of extraterrestrial life coming past our planet.
In December, scientists got swept up in the potential for new life after an interstellar object, named 3I/ATLAS by boffins, whizzed past Earth. Travelling at a maximum of 210,000 miles per hour, some scientists became convinced that it could in fact be an alien spacecraft heading our way.
However, as the object began to get captured on some of our most pristine telescopes and satellites, it soon emerged that this is not the case and in fact, the object was simply a comet that was passing through our solar system. This left many scientists confident of sheer expanse of the universe, but also left others defeated as they had pinned their hopes on 3I/ATLAS actually being a sign of life from afar.
One scientist — Avi Loeb, who led the theory of the asteroid being a form of alien life — took a harsh take to those who later confirmed that 3I/ATLAS was just a simple interstellar comet. Writing in his blog at the time, he said he would have preferred to have been carried on the comet as it raced by so it could prove to other lifeforms that humans do in fact exist.
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