UFO and Bigfoot

Peter Leeson is blogging over at Freakonomics as a guest, and his first entry is really cool. He starts off and shows an amazing pattern in the data that I've never heard of before: the correlation between states with sightings of UFOs and states with sightings of Bigfoot is really, really high. See his graph. But I thought this was particularly a fascinating observation, even more than just the correlation.

Second, a number of the top ten U.F.O. and Bigfoot states share more in common than ample sightseeing opportunities. For instance, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Colorado — both U.F.O. and Bigfoot hot spots — are among the least religious states in the country, which might impact their citizens’ likelihood of “seeing” both phenomena.

Isn't that interesting? So what's the relationship. Well, you don't want to draw causal inference yet, but boy don't I want to. The obvious story comes out of that - that maybe there is a demand for paranormal inherent to people, and in the absence of its expression in religion, it comes out in other forms, such as belief in extraterrestrials and undiscovered native animals. But why? That's something you could talk about all day.