Do you believe in alien abductions?

By Warren Gamble

If your house has been bathed in an eerie green glow, there are pools of strange ooze in the driveway and the neighbours have vanished, you're probably living in the lower North Island.

You are also probably aged under 40, in the middle to low-income bracket, support New Zealand First or Labour and are a Maori or Pacific Islander.

They are the groups most likely to believe in alien abductions, according to a New Zealand Herald-DigiPoll survey of 663 adults throughout the country.

The poll showed 14.2 per cent of New Zealanders believe in body-snatchers from outer space, 75.6 per cent do not and 10.3 per cent are not sure. The margin of error was 3.8 per cent.

In a Herald-DigiPoll survey last year, more than 40 per cent of people agreed that aliens visited earth. Perhaps the much lower belief in abductions means New Zealanders think the visitors are friendly critters here on intergalactic voyages of voyeurism.

Still, the Herald boldly went in search of those who had been beamed up to alien craft - only to find they had, ah, disappeared. Several people knew someone who had been abducted, but efforts to contact them met with disconnected numbers, gone-no-addresses or un-returned phone messages.

People living in the 06 telephone code area - including Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Wairarapa, Wanganui and New Plymouth - had the highest belief in abductions at 17.4 per cent.

Those in the 07 area, largely Waikato and the Bay of Plenty, were next at 14.9 per cent, followed by Wellingtonians (14.7) and Aucklanders (14.5).

Christchurch residents were the most down-to-earth, with only 11. 5 per cent believing.

And, from small samples, Pacific Islanders (22.2 per cent) and Maori (18.5) led the belief stakes, along with New Zealand First (25) and Labour (17.3) supporters.