This evening I found a unique new study, detailing the relationship between UFOs and Bigfoot sightings, at a blog called Anti-Dismal which featured a graph from the popular Freakonomics blog at the New York Times website. The original post can be accessed via the link below:

The X-Files, Economics Edition

Image courtesy of http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

Peter Leeson, the guest blogger who authored the post, is the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at George Mason University. Apparently, Leeson had been brainstorming ways he could work his interest in UFOs into an economics blog. Here are some of the points he addresses: We’re still in the early data-collecting stages of our project; but in doing so we’ve come across an intriguing pattern. The figure below plots total U.F.O. sightings in the U.S. for each state (per 10,000 residents) between 1997 and 2007 against total Bigfoot sightings in each state (per 10,000 residents) for the same period. 

The relationship is strong and positive. States with more U.F.O. sightings also have more Bigfoot sightings. In fact, six of the top ten U.F.O. and Bigfoot states are the same: Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Alaska, Wyoming, and Colorado. Two states, Washington and Oregon, are among both categories’ top five.

If you’re like many people, you may think it’s at least possible, though perhaps very unlikely, that U.F.O.’s are real. When it comes to Bigfoot, on the other hand, you’re quite certain he’s not real. If this is you, how should the pattern in this figure influence your beliefs?

This reminds me a bit of an essay written several years ago which discusses how Bigfoot seems to comply with all the laws of physics. The article is archived on Bobbie Short’s website Bigfoot Encounters:

http://www.bigfootencounters.com/biology/bfphysics.htm

Does applying logic and rational to uber-weirdness like Bigfoot reports lend any credence to its existence? Similarly, could drawing parallels between Bigfoot and UFOs cause reports of either phenomenon to seem more credible?