In almost all the sci-fi movies we’ve seen, the arrival of space aliens hardly ever bodes well. We run screaming, barricade our doors and wait frantically for tanks, fighter jets and Will Smith to rescue us.
But two Arizona State University researchers found that people view the possibility of extraterrestrial life, whether microbial or intelligent, in a positive light. We are likely to see it as a kindly E.T. and not a flesh-eating xenomorph.
Michael Varnum, an associate professor of psychology, came up with the idea of studying how people would respond to the discovery of alien life after a meeting at the School of Earth and Space Exploration’s Interplanetary Initiative, where researchers consider the future of humans and space.
He and co-author Jung Yul Kwon studied1,000 Americans and then 2,000 more people in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Mexico and Spain, gauging reactions to hypothetical announcements about the discovery of both microbial and intelligent life.
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