As an unprecedented U.S. intelligence report brings new attention to the phenomenon of unidentified flying objects, 65% of Americans say their best guess is that intelligent life exists on other planets, according to a survey conducted just before the release of the government assessment.
A smaller but still sizable share of the public (51%) says that UFOs reported by people in the military are likely evidence of intelligent life outside Earth. Most of this sentiment comes from people who say that military-reported UFOs are probably evidence of extraterrestrial life, rather than definitely such evidence (40% and 11%, respectively). On the other hand, 47% of Americans say the military reports are probably or definitely not evidence of life outside Earth.
