KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — Around 43 per cent of Malaysians surveyed by market research firm Ipsos on global threats recently said that humankind will discover ghosts really exist this year, while 34 per cent said this was unlikely.
This was the highest proportion compared to 10 economies surveyed by the Ipsos Global Advisor study on 2021 Predictions — Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, United States, Australia, and Great Britain — while global average was just at 16 per cent.
“Malaysians do have a colourful imagination of global threats, particularly when it comes to ghosts and robots.
“Interestingly, Malaysians believe that in 2021 we are more likely to discover ghosts than aliens,” Ipsos Malaysia managing director Arun Menon said in a statement.
Arun was referring to how only 10 per cent of Malaysian respondents were concerned about aliens visiting earth this year, compared to Saudi Arabia where 27 per cent believed so.
Additionally, 57 per cent of Malaysians polled also thought that robots will look, think and speak like humans this year, also the highest among the 10 markets abovementioned.
Meanwhile, 27 per cent of Malaysians said humans will become extinct this year, the second highest proportion among the 10 just below India (31 per cent).
The survey had involved 23,007 online interviews in 31 markets between October 23 and November 6.
Ipsos is a market research company formed in France in 1975, with presence in 90 markets globally.
