Marissa Yingling is a researcher who, with co-authors Charlton Yingling and Bethany Bell, has authored peer-reviewed national surveys quantifying uap-stigma in U.S. academia. Their 2023 Humanities and Social Sciences Communications survey covered 1,460 faculty across 144 research universities and 14 disciplines, finding curiosity outweighing skepticism in every discipline but fewer than 1% having ever conducted UAP research. A 2024 follow-up reported that ~28% of faculty might vote against tenure for a UAP-researching colleague even when believing the topic warranted study.
The Yingling et al. surveys are the most-cited empirical evidence for institutional UAP stigma in 2026 discourse (see src-academic-uap-stigma-2026-04).