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Behrens Science Museum
@bsmuseum.org

Most likely, nobody is behind it. If people go outside at night and look at the sky expecting to see UFOs, they see UFOs. If they're looking for drones, they see "drones." It's expectation bias.

Behrens Science Museum
@bsmuseum.org

That's a good question. It takes a lot of work to identify just one sighting. @mickwest.com does this very well. Some probably are drones. Many are probably airplanes misidentified as drones. There are a lot of airplanes flying over New Jersey.

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Behrens Science Museum
@bsmuseum.org

Other commonly misidentified objects include satellites, planets, balloons, and birds. We shouldn't assume that "these objects" are all the same things just because the individuals who saw them called them drones.

Behrens Science Museum
@bsmuseum.org

Also, it's not about intelligence. Our brains fill in missing information and reconcile inconsistencies without us even knowing it. Key features of the scientific method (control groups, randomization, and blinding) are needed because everyone is susceptible to misinterpreting data, even scientists.

Behrens Science Museum
@bsmuseum.org

The point is that figuring out what someone saw is a great deal of work. We know this from past efforts like Project Blue Book and other government efforts to follow up on UFO reports.

Behrens Science Museum
@bsmuseum.org

I disagree. The government can't identify every sighting of lights in the sky. They need to know where the photo was taken and when. Then they have to figure out the direction the camera was pointing and compare with airplane self-reported position data (ADS-B) to see if it could have been a plane.