If extraterrestrial life is ever discovered, humanity would probably be pretty cool with it.
A new study, one of very few of its kind, finds that people typically respond quite positively to the notion of life on other planets. The study investigated the possibility of finding microbial extraterrestrials, not intelligent E.T.s, so people's responses might be a little different if they were told an armada of aliens were headed toward Earth, cautioned study author Michael Varnum, a psychologist at Arizona State University. Nevertheless, he noted, large portions of people believe that intelligent aliens do exist and that they've visited Earth; so even a more dramatic announcement might not ruffle feathers.
"What this suggests is, there's no reason to be afraid" of sharing news of astrobiology with the public, Varnum told Live Science. "We won't collapse. We're not going to have chaos in the streets." [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Alien Life]
Of course not. Which begs the question, why have the powers that be been lying to us for so long? Do they know something about our ET visitors that we would not want to know? To read more, click here.