Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), also referred to as UFOs, are starting to fascinate the minds of US academia, so much so that 37% would not mind conducting research into the mysterious sightings, research revealed.
A team of scientists, including from the University of Louisville, sent out a survey in 2022 to 39,984 academics: professors, associate professors and assistant professors from 144 US universities across 14 different disciplines. One third of the nearly 1,500 who responded (4%) said that they have a degree of interest in conducting research into UAP.
Another 19% of respondents said they or someone they knew had witnessed an unidentified aerial phenomenon, according to the findings of the study, published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.
39% of the respondents said they could not explain UFO sightings, 21% attributed them to natural events, and 13% did so to devices of unknown intelligence.
Of those who took part in the survey, 10% worked in political science, physics, and psychology, while for 6%, the field of engineering was their metier.
Citing the fact that the US government has been embarking upon investigations and hearings into UAP, with the Pentagon indicating over 500 reports about UFOs with the agency as of August 2022, the study authors believe there is now a notable "shift" in the future of this topic, which once bore a certain "stigma."
"The findings suggest that many US academics across disciplines consider academia’s involvement in research into UAP to be important and may be cautiously willing to engage with research into UAP, particularly if others they consider to be reputable within their field do so," study author Dr. Marissa Yingling, of the University of Louisville in Kentucky, was cited as saying.
Elated by the results of the study, Yingling added that more open discussions of UAP among academics "could enable greater academic involvement in UAP-related research."