A new survey has found that more than one in two individuals in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany believe there is intelligent life out there in space.
According to new YouGov research, majority of the public in these three countries believe that living entities, which have the ability to communicate and do not hail from Earth, exist.
Findings show that more than half of Germans (56 percent) believe this, the most likely to do so in the survey participants. Fifty-four percent of Americans and 52 percent of British people share the opinion.
At most, 32 percent or one-third in Germany "assertively do not believe" in extra-terrestrial (ET) life. In all three countries, the oldest segments are the least likely to believe, with 45 percent of those over 60 years old in Britain, compared to 59 percent of 18 to 24 year olds, thinking aliens are out there.
At least in Hollywood, people are quite cautious about whether human beings should reach out to aliens or not. Among British respondents, however, 46 percent said humans "should send a digital message describing life on Earth" to other civilizations, while 33 percent said no message should be delivered.
The YouGov report cites the "Fermi Paradox," which delves into the "total lack of evidence for intelligent life" contradicting the "incredibly low chance" that the Earth is the only planet that exists in the universe.
"British people who believe alien life exists say the most likely reasons for the paradox are that intelligent life is too far away for us to be able to contact it, and that our technology is not advanced enough for communication," the survey states.
Other reasons mentioned by respondents include intelligent ET consciously choosing not to contact the Earth, intelligent ET visiting the planet long before human civilization, and government cover-up.
Stephen Hawking has dubbed the search for alien life as "the most exciting quest in 21st-century science" and supports the Breakthrough Initiative, a new project considered the biggest search for alien intelligence at present.
Photo: JD Hancock | Flickr
