Edit: this article is the source

    • @EnchantedWhetstones
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      181 year ago

      I capped the heatmap at 25 sightings per 10M, but as you’ll see in a second, that’s because people in the USA are hilariously more likely to report a UFO sighting than anyone else. If I let the scale be free, it pretty much makes the rest of the map the same shade of blue.

      In fact, people in the USA report about 2500 sightings per 10M, a number almost 300 times greater than the global median. Why are Americans obsessed with UFOs? Maybe it’s related to Internet access. You have to have Internet access to submit a report, after all.

      the plot thickens

      • alunyanneгs 🏳️‍⚧️♀️
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        91 year ago

        That, or Usonians just happen to be the most psychotic branch of Anglos.

        I say this because (although I’m not very knowledgeable on UK politics, but nontheless) I feel UK politics is saner compared to Usonia’s (with the latter even treating it as pop culture/sports with the amount of political banners and whatnot), and I feel oddly confident that the UK is more likely to see a successful communist revolution in our lifetime than the US (though I hope it does too).

        • @Shrike502
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          111 year ago

          I feel UK politics is saner compared to Usonia’s

          I used to think the same until last year. The Ukraine war really brought out the dirt

        • @EnchantedWhetstones
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          51 year ago

          Yea they’re making the assumption only people in America have lots of internet access??

    • @pingveno@lemmy.ml
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      fedilink
      71 year ago

      I’m dropping in on the thread at @CountryBreakfast@lemmygrad.ml’s recommendation. The source of the statistics is an organization located in Washington state in the United States. The online form to report a UFO sighting is only in English. If you look at the map, most of the countries that have high per capita reports of UFO sightings also have a high rate of speaking English. Not every country follows that - notably Mexico and India - but most do. So while there may be cultural factors, I think sampling bias (linguistic and country of origin) is likely the largest source.

      Edit: Also of note is the US’s history of advanced aircraft. During Jimmy Carter’s run for president, he promised to release all UFO-related records if elected. Immediately upon entering office, he broke that promise. There is speculation that he broke that promise because many of the sightings were stealth plane test flights. It lines up with what we now know about the timing of their development, location of certain bases, and the location of some sightings.