Nearly 50% of People Believe in Extraterrestrial Civilizations

Nearly 50 percent of people believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life and want to establish contact with them. This shows a survey in 24 countries, which according to the authors explains somewhat the popularity of the Star Wars saga 40 years after the release of the first film of the series, Reuters reported.

On the eve of the Star Wars: The Last Jedi premieres, researchers published a survey that showed that 47 percent of over 26,000 respondents believed "the existence of rational extraterrestrial civilizations in the universe." Moreover, 61 percent respond to a question of whether they believe in the existence of some form of life on other planets. Roughly one quarter of respondents believe that apart from Earth, there are no intelligent creatures elsewhere, researchers from Glosalitis said. Among those who believe we are not alone in the universe, 60 percent say we have to contact the aliens.

This is not the first poll that examines people's attitudes to alien life, Reuters said. Research in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States have also reached similar conclusions, but the authors of this study indicate that it is larger. Polls are conducted in 15 languages ​​between December 2015 and February 2016 in countries that represent 62 percent of the world's population and 80 percent of the world economy. "The high percentage of people who believe in the existence of rational extraterrestrial civilizations partly explains the immense popularity of space-based movies such as Star Wars," said researcher Martin Lampert, Most believers in extraterrestrial civilizations are in Russia with 68 percent. They are followed by Mexico and China, while the Dutch are among the skeptics with 28 percent.