Curiosity, Not Fear: How a UAP-Attentive Public Appraised the 2026 PURSUE Releases

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract How people would respond to releasing information related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) has long been debated, yet that reaction has never been measured while a government is in the active process of disclosing such information to the public. On 8 May 2026 the U.S. Department of War opened the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE), releasing previously classified records at WAR.GOV/UFO. A self-selected sample of 1,793 UAP-attentive adults in 73 countries responded to a survey circulated through UAP-focused media channels during the first months of the programme. Reception was dominated by curiosity (71.72%) while 19.97% reported considerable anger or frustration and 1.90% considerable fear. Perceived threat was low: only 6.25% judged the releases very or extremely threatening to national security. Among the 1,298 participants holding religious or spiritual beliefs, 78.74% said confirmation of non-human intelligence (NHI) would not disturb those beliefs at all. Participants judged themselves far readier than the general public to encounter more challenging evidence ( d z = 1.12), with 96.93% rating themselves as mostly or completely ready against 61.91% for the public. However, believing the public was less ready did not meaningfully predict a preference for slower disclosure, and 92.25% wanted much more information released. Most participants (84.05%) believed stigma discourages scientists from studying UAP, and this perception was a stronger predictor of support for further disclosure and public funding of UAP research than either institutional trust or belief in NHI. In free-text responses, the most frequently detected concern was government concealment (21.62%), ahead of NHI intentions (14.26%). The findings provide no evidence that this UAP-attentive audience wanted information withheld because it considered the wider public unprepared, but they do not establish how less attentive or vulnerable publics might respond.