Posted on 02/16/2018 12:18:24 PM PST by Red Badger
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
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As humans reach out technologically to see if there are other life forms in the universe, one important question needs to be answered: When we make contact, how are we going to handle it? Will we feel threatened and react in horror? Will we embrace it? Will we even understand it? Or, will we shrug it off as another thing we have to deal with in our increasingly fast-paced world?
"If we came face to face with life outside of Earth, we would actually be pretty upbeat about it," said Arizona State University Assistant Professor of Psychology Michael Varnum. "So far, there's been a lot of speculation about how we might respond to this kind of news, but until now, almost no systematic empirical research."
Varnum presented his findings during a press briefing Feb. 16 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas.
In a pilot study, Varnum and his colleagues analyzed language in newspaper articles about past potential extraterrestrial life discoveries. Through the work, Varnum aimed to address the nature of reactions to extraterrestrial life by analyzing reactions using a software program that quantifies emotions, feelings, drives and other psychological states in written texts.
The articles in the pilot study focused on the 1996 discovery of possibly fossilized extraterrestrial Martian microbes; the 2015 discovery of periodic dimming around Tabby's Star, thought to indicate the presence of an artificially constructed "Dyson sphere;" and the 2017 discovery of Earth-like exoplanets in the habitable zone of a star. The pilot study found that language in the coverage of these events showed significantly more positive than negative emotions.
In a separate study, the team asked more than 500 different participants to write about their own hypothetical reactions and humanity's hypothetical reaction to an announcement that extraterrestrial microbial life had been discovered. Participants' responses also showed significantly more positive than negative emotions, both when contemplating their own reactions and those of humanity as a whole.
"I would have some excitement about the news," one participant said. "It would be exciting even if it was a primitive form."
In another study, Varnum's group presented an additional sample of more than 500 people with past news coverage of scientific discoveries and asked them to write about their reactions. The participants were divided into two groups. In one group, participants read a past article from The New York Times describing possible evidence of ancient microbial life on a Mars meteorite. The second group of participants read an article from the Times describing the claimed creation of synthetic human made life created in the lab. Here too, the team found evidence of significantly more positive than negative emotions in responses to the claimed discovery of extraterrestrial life, and this effect was stronger in response to reading about extraterrestrial life than human made synthetic life.
"This discovery shows that other planets have the ability to have life on them," a participant said. "It's a very interesting and exciting finding that could be only the beginning."
In unpublished results presented at the conference, Varnum analyzed recent media coverage of the possibility that the interstellar Oumuamua asteroid might actually be a spaceship. Here too, he found evidence of more positive than negative emotions, suggesting that we may also react positively to the news of the discovery of evidence of intelligent life from elsewhere in the universe.
Varnum said the studies show that "taken together, this suggests if we find out we're not alone, we'll take the news rather well."
The results of the first three studies were published Jan. 10 in Frontiers in Psychology and analysis of reactions to Oumuamua were presented at AAAS for the first time. ASU doctoral students Hannah Bercovici and Jung Yul Kwon, and ASU alumna Katja Cunningham, assisted Varnum in the research.
Varnum will formally present this research in his presentation, "What Happens When Everyone Finds Out?" The presentation will be given at the "Is There a Future for Humanity in Space?" session on Feb. 17.
Explore further: No alien 'signals' from cigar-shaped asteroid: researchers
More information: Jung Yul Kwon et al, How Will We React to the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life?, Frontiers in Psychology (2018). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02308
Journal reference: Frontiers in Psychology
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-humans-react-pretty-news-alien.html#jCp
I see no evidence you are reading my posts and understanding them to the least degree.
Cheers.
With the proper infrastructure, equipment, materials, education, tools and training, certainly.
If the b**** is green, then something is wrong with the Meow!!
Talking to aliens?
Like I can talk to a dog, porpoise or whale?
And these are creatures that evolved on this planet.....
Unless, of course, the porpoises are the survivors of a long ago lifeboat landing from a doomed starliner....which would explain a lot.
Aliens to our right...aliens to our left...We are surrounded by at least 45-million aliens as I write this...and most of us are pissed...
Who could care if a spaceship with a couple hundred more aliens arrives...The only important issue will be whether they can landscape or clean motel rooms, and how much welfare subsistence they will demand...
I guess I would be curious but not surprised.
I am in the middle of nowhere so unless it was another “Independence Day” I wouldn’t be worried about it.
So some say.
libertylover ~ I saw a show one time where a guy pointed out the utter ridiculousness of this. He asked that if you somehow drive a modern nuclear powered submarine into a harbor in 1492 and say, "Here you go. Make a copy". Could they? Not a chance.
Not immediately. Throw in a couple crew members with general scientific knowledge, knowing that electronics are made of silicon, knowing the reactor is powered with uranium, and yes there's a pretty good chance that a crude but workable atomic powered submarine could be built in a matter of years.
In 1942 we were only three years away from atomic bombs, without even knowing for certain they could be built! If we were certain, perhaps it would have been a bit quicker.
In 1942 we were only ten years away from laying the keel on the USS Nautilus, perhaps with a working example we could have done that in five years?
Dilbert, some of the same people who say we have crashed UFOs have been known to say we also have survivors...
Gah! 1492. Damned lisdexia...
Still, better steels, knowing a submersible craft is possible (although the first military use wasn’t until 1776.)
Maybe light bulbs?
Electrical generators?
Brass cartridge firearms?
Canned goods (not invented until the time of Napoleon)?
Pencils?
Binoculars/telescopes/periscopes? About a hundred years before Galileo, within spitting distance of a Venetian glass blower’s ability.
I bet if pressed, even you or I could fashion a crude Victrola type record player!
Propeller power. We could have completely bypassed the era of paddle wheels!
Imagine using a windmill to drive a propeller! You could sail directly into the wind without needing to tack back and forth!
Dear Citizens, there are multiple species of alien biological and non-biological beings visiting Earth and interacting with terrestrial humans. Some of them are benign and caring, some are indifferent and therefore dangerous in certain circumstances, and some are predatory. There is not one damn thing your government or military can do about any of them. If they decide to abduct and dissect you or one you care for, there is no help or appeal but to God Himself.
As a side-note to the decades of human-alien interaction before now, it has been discovered and proved that our physical reality is computationally derived. In other words, a simulation.
Goodnight America, and sleep well.
So...nahhhh....can't do it. We can't wake up THAT much.
The rareness of life serves to highlights it insurmountable value.
Wait till humans find out we are on the menu.
Humans will actually react pretty well to news of alien life
Thanks, Eddie.
The rareness of life serves to highlights it insurmountable value.
...
I agree with that. If rare minerals are precious, why not life?
Most won’t understand, unfortunately, that the Aliens won’t be from another planet but will be from right here on planet earth...
Demon Shape Shifters will do a great job of convincing most that they are real...when in fact they will be part of a satanic plot to deceive the world.
Yes, its all a part of “the plan”.
Bring one of them to me and I’ll show you how they react to HOLY WATER.
Mark McCandlish USAF illustrator hand-drew detailed illustrations at the blueprint level of existing machines from personal experience in the USAF and from data he was asked to create. No one has successfully debunked what he drew nor how the machines work.
They remain secret because everyone in the public believes they are impossible, therefore they cannot exist and so no one looks. A self-making secret.
Nuclear submarines are very complex and complicated. These machines are simplicity itself. Their operation and construction is also very simple. And working machines have been around a long time.
No cause for disagreement from me.
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