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Humans will react well to news of alien life, study reveals

The Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, US, tracks objects in space. - PA
The Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, US, tracks objects in space. - PA

When the booming voice of Orson Welles interrupted a dance music programme on October 30 1938 to announce that explosions had been seen on Mars, it sparked mass panic across the US.

Despite being merely a CBS radio adaptation of HG Wells' War of The Worlds, the news bulletin format was believed by many, and police were even sent to the studio to to stop the broadcast.

But 80 years on it appears that the public has become more resilient to the prospect of alien life. 

A new study asking people how they would feel about the discovery of extraterrestrials by the University of Arizona, proved surprisingly positive. 

"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 thi kind of news, but until now, almost no systematic empirical research."

In one experiment, Dr Varnum analysed language in newspaper articles about past potential extraterrestrial life discoveries including the 1996 discovery of possibly fossilized extraterrestrial Martian microbes in an asteroid, and announcments that exoplanets could hold life. 

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, 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In further unpublished results presented at the AAAS conference in Austin, Texas, Dr, Varnum also analysed recent media coverage of the possibility that the interstellar Oumuamua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. 

Dr 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."

"In summary, the results of this study suggest that people believe, on the whole both themselves and humanity will respond in positive ways if a confirmed discovery of extraterrestrial life is made," he said. 

However he added: "I would qualify that by saying that if the intelligent life discovered was sort of an armada of hostile war ships entering the Solar System, the no I don't imagine you would see this pattern."