UFO Conspiracy Theory

A UFO conspiracy theory is any one of many often overlapping conspiracy theories which argue that evidence of the reality of unidentified flying objects as extraterrestrial visitors is being suppressed by various governments around the world. According to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, such theories are backed by little or no evidence despite significant research on the subject by non-governmental scientific agencies. They are therefore considered pseudoscience.

Believers commonly argue that Earth governments, especially the Government of the United States, are in communication or cooperation with extraterrestrials despite public claims to the contrary. Some of these theories claim that the government is explicitly allowing alien abduction. British researchers have found some evidence of suppression of UFO incidents by governments during the Cold War but have found no evidence of it having a conspiratorial nature. The motive is attributed to the governments' desire to avoid admitting that they could not explain the UFO phenomenon and its associated hysteria at its height.