was sent to 39,984 academics and the response rate was 4%. Participants, who were 62% male and 80% white, were asked about their perceptions of, experiences with and opinions of UAP. Of the 14 different disciplines represented, 10% of participants worked inNineteen percent of participants reported that they or someone they knew had witnessed UAP and a further 9% reported that they or someone they knew may have witnessed UAP.
Although only 4% of participants reported that they had conducted academic research related to UAP, 36% reported some degree of interest in conducting research in this area. 43% said they would be more likely to conduct academic research into UAP if a reputable scholar in theirdid so and 55% said they would be more likely to conduct research into UAP if they could secure funding.
Thirty-seven percent of participants ranked the importance of further research into UAP as very important or absolutely essential, while 64% considered academia's involvement in UAP-related research to be very important or absolutely essential. 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. The authors suggest that open discussions of UAP among academics could enable greater academic involvement in UAP-related research.
However, they note that further surveys in larger and more diverse cohorts are needed to investigate attitudes towards UAP more generally among academics in the U.S..Humanities and Social Science Communications