Why Are Ufo Conspiracy Ideas So Widely Accepted?

Since the term “flying saucer” was first coined, much of the conspiratorial thinking about UFOs has been spawned by people catching glimpses of highly secret information. To reduce the stigma, many serious investigators now refer to UFOs as “unidentified anomalous phenomena”, or UAPs, coined by the U.S. Department of Defense. The number of people who believe UFO sightings offer likely proof of alien life increased from 20% in 1996 to 34% in 2022. Some 24 percent of the population believe Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials.

The book UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There, out Nov. 14, by journalist Garrett M. Graff traces the history of UFO sightings and official denials, which have fueled conspiracy theories that the U.S. government is hiding alien information from the public. In recent years, the Pentagon has confirmed that what appeared to be out-of-this-world, and around a fifth of UK citizens believe Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials.

Conspiracy theories are an important type of belief system, which have often had the potential to lead to conspiracy theories such as aliens, event conspiracies, moon conspiracies, and the Bush administration being behind 9/11. People have been claiming that a UFO was tailing the Hale-Bopp comet, leading to their belief in alien intelligent life.

The development of UFO subcultures from the perspective of religious studies has led to a wide range of conspiracy theories, including those about aliens, moon conspiracies, and the existence of alien intelligent life.