Case file · Non-fiction & research literature
Bartholomew & Howard, 'UFOs and Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery'
Medical sociologist Robert Bartholomew's study, with George Howard, of UFO waves and contact claims as social and psychological phenomena.
1998 CE · -36.85, 174.76 · status: explained
The account
Bartholomew treats sighting waves, such as the 1890s airships, as episodes of collective behaviour and contact claims as products of fantasy-prone personality and culture. It is the main sociological skeptic text on the subject.
The sceptical view
Proponents argue that mass-delusion explanations are applied too broadly and ignore cases with physical or radar evidence.