http://www.cseti.org/position/addition/etpoll.htm
86% believe aliens friendly
The Associated Press
AP-NY-12-15-97 1720EST
WASHINGTON (AP) - Most Americans think there is intelligent life on other
planets - more intelligent, in fact, than on Earth.
``The public loves this stuff, they always have,'' said Paul Horowitz, a
professor of physics at Harvard, when told of the finding made public Monday
by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. Horowitz directs a project that
operates a 250-million channel receiver listening for signals from space.
``It could be that the American people are taking two and two and coming up
with four,'' said Brian Welch, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration.
What pleased the space community was the response to this question: ``Do you
think there is intelligent life on other planets?''
Sixty percent of the people said yes and 40 percent said no.
Marist researchers then asked those who said yes if they thought life on
other planets is ``more, less, or about as intelligent as human life on
earth.''
The aliens came out ahead on that question, with 47 percent saying they
thought extraterrestrial life was more intelligent, 13 percent said less
intelligent and 40 percent said it was about the same.
By a margin of 86 to 14, people said they thought galactic neighbors are
friendly rather than hostile.
Despite the positive view of the possibility of life on other planets, the
survey found Americans divided on spending for the space program.
Forty-seven percent said the government is spending too much, 43 percent said
funding was about right and 10 percent said it was too low. Asked if they
thought the space program was a good investment, 45 percent said yes and 55
percent said the money would be better spent on other programs.
The telephone survey was conducted Oct. 5-7. Marist questioned 935 adults by
telephone and the results had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
Broken down by age, people from 18 through 60 were strongly supportive of the
idea of life on other planets. But people older than 60 rejected the idea by
a margin of 67 to 33.
``The subject has moved a lot in just the last couple of years, said Louis
Friedman, executive director of the Planetary Society, whose 100,000 members
are strong advocates of continuing research into the possibility of life in
outer space.
Horowitz said researchers are ``riding along on this wave of technological
innovation.'' He said his project listens on 250 million channels
simultaneously. The first serious search for signals from space was in 1960
and had just one channel, he said.
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