Why the US tops UFO sightings – it’s not aliens

America has duly adopted the lead believer of aliens over the decades, with over 100,000 sightings since 1947. But how do other countries compare?

When rooting around for interviews, stories, and commentary on UFO / UAP sightings over the last few months, I feel like I’ve been boxed into some kind of American discourse.

Don’t other countries have a shared curiosity, too? I had to go a bit deeper.

Global curiosity, local differences

Japan, for example, has a high output of sci-fi culture in anime and manga, but far fewer UFO sightings. It seems escapist culture is firmly tied to the arts there and not caught up in delusion.

Germany has a high military and tech history, too, and still less public UFO appeal.

Only Brazil and Russia come anywhere close to reporting UFOs – the former being on a more spiritual level and the latter intertwined with the Soviet Union's position in the space race.

To get expert insight, we spoke with Joe Gutheinz, a retired NASA Senior Special Agent and former Army Intelligence Officer who has extensively researched UFO phenomena and military secrecy.

“The old Soviet Union had an equally gullible population and would literally hide military towns and launch pads from the Russian population, letting fantasies replace logic when observations were made,” explained Gutheinz.

And Russia lacks a glossy fictive producer like Hollywood to drive the narrative forward.

Fiction weaponized as cover

This might explain how the US military could have deliberately created fake UFO stories to mask secret weapons and aircraft.

A skeptical school of thought has the Cold War–era US military creating fake UFO stories to cover secret aircraft and weapons, with Area 51 myths and staged leaks uniquely fuelling US UFO lore.

“US military disinformation gave Americans an edge… the intelligence community happily fuels fantasies by classifying info,” Gutheinz contextualized.

American kids are glued to TV and social media, unlike any other country… science fiction rules over science, so people often see clouds as flying saucers.

Gutheinz explained.

Hollywood and US media saturate global culture with alien themes, shaping public perception, with many shows and movies perpetuating the myth – some believe that it helps drive paranoia.

“Pop culture like The X-Files created believers who think they’re tracked by aliens or government agents,” ventured Gutheinz.

It seems that historical narratives – chiefly the Cold War – are a huge part of why UFO sightings persist so strongly in the US.