CBS Poll: Something Is Out There
As John Glenn prepares to return to space 36 years after his first trip, a majority of Americans don't expect to follow him in the 21st century, a CBS News poll has found.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans do not believe there will be widespread space travel in the 21st Century, according to a poll conducted for Monday's CBS News broadcast People of the Century: The CBS News/Time 100 . But most Americans do believe there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
Twenty-two percent say they expect space travel to become commonplace and they want to take part in it. Another 15 percent expect such travel to be common but would prefer to remain on Earth.
If given the opportunity, more men than women - nearly one in three- said they would like to travel to space during the next century. A quarter of younger adults also said they believed in the possibility and would like to go. Also, Republicans appear to be more eager to travel to space than Democrats and independents. More than a quarter of Republicans say they would like to cruise to space in the 21st Century, while just 17% of Democrats and 20% of independents said they would like to take the trip.
Fifty-one percent of the population thinks there is other intelligent life in the universe. This is a drop from last year when 58 percent said they believed in extraterrestrials. Age is a determining factor in whether people believe in alien intelligence. Fifty-nine percent of those under the age of 30, the highest of any age group, believe we are not alone in this universe. In contrast, fewer than one in four Americans 64 years and older think there is intelligent life in outer space.
It appears that a strong religious faith reduces one's belief in extraterrestrial life. Of those who said religion is an extremely important part of their lives, only 42 percent believe there is intelligent life somewhere in space. However, of those who said religion is not an important part of their lives, six out of 10 believe there are other intelligent beings.
Even if we are not alone, more than half of Americans, 52 percent, think we will not have contact with extra terrestrials in the next century. Only three of 10 Americans believe we will meet with them. Two percent thinks we already have had contact.
This poll was conducted among a nation-wide random sample of 782 adults, interviewed by telephone March 1-2, 1998. The error due to sampling could be plus or minus four percentage points for results based on the entire sample.