Minor alien invasion OK with most Americans, poll shows

Minor alien invasion OK with most Americans, poll shows

As part of its new "Chasing UFOs" series, the National Geographic Channel conducted a poll to assess Americans' views on the paranormal.
By Amy Hubbard
Los Angeles Times
June 28, 2012
LOS ANGELES — More than 80 million Americans believe that UFOs exist and many of them are not afraid of an alien drop-in, according to a new study.

As part of its new "Chasing UFOs" series, the National Geographic Channel conducted a poll to assess Americans' views on the paranormal. The study found that 11 percent of those polled believed they had seen a UFO.



In addition, most of those polled said they would regard a minor alien invasion as only a minor inconvenience. And most expect the visitors to be "E.T."-type friendly, according to a news release about the study.

And despite the recent uproar over the Miami face-chewing incident, 71 percent in this survey were more likely to believe in aliens than in zombies, or vampires, or superheroes.

The study threw in a few fun questions.

Among them: Which superhero would Americans be more likely call on to battle aliens (the evil kind, not E.T.)? That would be the Hulk (21 percent). Spider-Man got only 8 percent of the vote. That could bode ill for the Tuesday opening of "The Amazing Spider-Man."

President Obama had the questionable honor of being perceived as better able to handle an alien invasion than GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney; this was a notion held more strongly among women than men and among younger folks than older.

The "Aliens Among Us" survey was conducted with a random nationwide sample of 1,114 Americans from May 21 to 29. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percent.

"Chasing UFOs" will premiere at Friday on the National Geographic Channel.