A majority of Utahns are fairly certain intelligent life exists on other planets, but fewer are sure they'd be better off if the aliens actually showed up.
Maybe they've been to the movies lately.In a recent Deseret News/KSL poll, 71 percent of those surveyed said intelligent life probably or definitely exists elsewhere in the universe.
And when it comes to actual contact, roughly a third said their lives would definitely or probably change for the better if extraterrestrials made obvious contact with Earth.
"People who sensationalize UFOs, like `Independence Day,' seem to think there will be some dramatic changes" if other-worldly life is discovered, said Mildred Biesele, Utah director for the Mutual UFO Network. "There's bound to be a change in attitude toward themselves, life in the universe, perhaps even changes in religion and our view of the world.
"But will these be things that disrupt our society or things we accept like other changes? I think we could probably live with it."
Many Utahns also told pollsters they believe in the government-UFO conspiracy theory. Forty-eight percent said the U.S. government is probably or definitely concealing information about UFOs.
Maybe they've been watching television.
Also, 7 percent of Utahns told pollsters they've seen a UFO they think might have been operated by extraterrestrials, and 16 percent said they believe some humans have been abducted by aliens.
The poll was conducted Aug. 6-9 by Dan Jones & Associates and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. Six hundred and two adults were surveyed.
The questions were asked during the week NASA researchers announced microscopic life may have existed on Mars billions of years ago. That followed other recent discoveries, including the existence of planets orbiting two nearby stars.
Meanwhile, the movie blockbuster "Independence Day" and TV productions like Fox's "Alien Autopsy" and "X-Files," "Sightings" and NBC's upcoming series "Dark Skies" have vaulted science fiction and UFO folklore into the mainstream.
In Utah, Terry and Gwen Sherman made national news in July with their accounts of UFOs, cattle mutilations and other paranormal events on their ranch near Fort Duchesne.
Those events might have something to do with Utahns' opinions about extraterrestrial life. For whatever reason, the Deseret News poll showed Utahns are more accepting of the idea than a sampling of Americans in previous years.
In 1977, 44 percent surveyed told the Roper organization they believe life exists somewhere else in the universe. In 1982, 47 percent told New York-based Audits & Surveys they believe in "intelligent life in outer space." In a 1990 Gallup poll, 46 percent said they believe people "somewhat like us" live on other planets.
Few pollsters, however, have probed Americans about the government's knowledge of UFOs.
"That question has almost never been asked before," said Mark Rodeghier, scientific director of the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago. "The idea of a cover-up really didn't occur until the late 1980s, although UFOlogists had talked about it for years."
James McGaha, a retired Air Force pilot and longtime UFO skeptic, said if anyone believes the government is hiding information, it's a direct result of the media's promotion of the idea.
"If that is the case then there has been a massive governmental conspiracy for a very long time, and I don't believe in any conspiracies that last any period of time," McGaha said from his home in Tucson, Ariz. "If the government is hiding UFOs, certainly I want them to be exposed, but there simply is no evidence."
Biesele, who has investigated dozens of Utah UFO sightings over the years, said she isn't surprised 7 percent of the poll respondents had seen UFOs they believed to be operated by non-humans.
"Seven percent is about what you'd expect," she said. "A survey taken of astronomers a few years ago by a professor from Stanford found that 10 percent of astronomers have seen things they can't explain."
National polls have asked the same question, in various forms, over the years. The percentage of people who say they've seen UFOs has been fairly constant - 11 percent (Gallup, 1973); 9 percent (Gallup, 1978); 6 percent (Roper, 1985); 14 percent (Gallup, 1990); and 7 percent (Roper, 1991).
Rodeghier said he is unaware of any national or local poll that has asked about belief in abductions. He described the 16 percent figure as "astounding."
"I guess it proves what I'd suspected, that the abduction lore has really penetrated the public mind, for better or for worse," he said.
McGaha thinks it's for the worse and blames "tabloid television and a few books."
"There are lots and lots of people, mostly women, who think they've been abducted by aliens and as this phenomenon gets larger it has sort of taken over the UFO movement," McGaha said. "I believe there's no evidence to support it. If millions of people have been abducted, why has no one ever seen it happen?"
Accepting abductions as fact is to accept the government cover-up, McGaha said, because "if millions of people are being abducted, the government in all likelihood knows about it and that means the government is complicit with it, doesn't care or can't do anything to stop it."
The poll data revealed some interesting trends:
- People older than 55 had less belief in life elsewhere than any other age group and were least likely to believe abduction claims are genuine.
- Fifty-two percent of those with less than a high school education said the government definitely is concealing information about UFOs. Only 16 percent of those with college degrees felt that way.
- Democrats were more likely than Republicans to believe in a cover-up.
- Only 4 percent of people who described themselves as "very conservative" said alien contact definitely would change their lives for the better, but 23 percent of those who think of themselves as "very liberal" felt that way.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Deseret News/KSL poll
Do you believe intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe?
DEFINITELY 43%
PROBABLY 28%
PROBABLY NOT 9%
DEFINITELY NOT 12%
DON'T KNOW 8%
Do you believe the U.S. government is concealing information about UFOs?
DEFINITELY 26%
PROBABLY 22%
PROBABLY NOT 20%
DEFINITELY NOT 20%
DON'T KNOW 12%
Do you believe some humans have been abducted by extraterrestrials?
YES 16%
NO 67%
DON'T KNOW 17%
If intelligent beings from another planet made obvious contact with Earth, would your life change for the better or for the worse?
BETTER 31%
NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE 15%
WORSE 9%
DEPENDS 9%
DON'T KNOW 34%
Poll conducted Aug. 6-9, 1996, 602 Utah residents. Margin of error +/-4%. Survey conducted by Dan Jones & Associates. Copyright 1996 Deseret News.