Aliens assured warm welcome by earthlings, study finds

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

Despite being merely a CBS radio adaptation of H G Wells’ The War of the Worlds, the news bulletin format was believed by many to be genuine.

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

A 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 Michael Varnum, the Arizona State University assistant professor of psychology.

Dr Varnum analysed language in newspaper articles about past potential extraterrestrial life discoveries including the 1996 discovery of possibly fossilised extraterrestrial Martian microbes in an asteroid, and announcements that exoplanets could hold life. He also asked 500 participants to write about their own, and humanity’s, hypothetical reaction to an announcement of extraterrestrial microbial life being discovered.

The study found that language in the coverage showed significantly more positive than negative emotions.

In further unpublished results presented at the AAAS conference in Austin, Texas, Dr Varnum analysed recent media coverage of the possibility that the interstellar ’Oumuamua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

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”.