Any story does that. It's not exclusive to science fiction.
True. But IMO sci-fi is one of the genres which influence how people think of the future at most.
[citation required]
Sorry, I don't have a link. I was too lazy to actually implement the idea of a webapp which stores the sources to my opinions. But as an example, there where UFO invader movies in the 50s and a few years later they tested(and failed) them on Area 51.
Shortly after "flying saucers" appeared in movies the air force (or whatever office was responsible back then) was granted funds to build them. They built prototypes, but they failed aerodynamically (like the nazi round planes did as well). It's in some declassified US government data.
Area 51 isn't just a conspiracy theory, it's where they tested aircraft. When some strange flying objects were seen by the public nearby, they made it sound as crazy as possible to confuse the Soviets.
Any story does that. It's not exclusive to science fiction.
[citation required]
It surprisingly is. The articles I've read on the matter have all been well written and there was a respectable amount of research done by the writers and others. And when I say articles, I don't mean blog posts. These are honest-to-goodness real journalism and research. Not scholarly, of course. That'd probably a hard sell. But still.