Page Content (OCR)
251 If education about SETI becomes more readily available world- wide—and barring major changes in social contexts—most of the non- informed population will be indifferent, with others more or less curious, with some small groups exuberant or defensive, and with fewer holding extremist views.’ These findings did not address the direct contact scenario. Our reaction to contact may be complicated by the ambiguity of the evidence; early interpretations may turn out to be mistaken. Even a fully decoded intercept could give us a distorted impression of extraterrestrials, psychologists Albert Harrison and Joel Johnson warned. It will be difficult for us to judge if the message is representative of the other civilization. Media coverage will focus on the most sensational aspects of the discov- ery; we should expect inaccurate and incomplete treatment. We also should expect a strong tendency to make generalizations based on the content of the message, no matter how thin or potentially misleading. Given minimal information, many people will fill in the gaps to develop a complete mental picture of the aliens, with a probable tendency to accentuate the negative." Judging by past experiences, there may be a readiness to report exagger- ated claims. Harold Klein, head of the Viking project biology team, com- mented that media people were very interested in getting scientists to say that the results of experiments on the Martian surface had a meaning beyond what the data would allow scientists to say.'* Would different human cultures have distinctive reactions? Douglas Vakoch and Yuh-shiow Lee described the responses of American and Chinese students to a series of questions about a message from extrater- restrial intelligence. Among Chinese, more anthropocentric people were more disposed to think that a message would be unsettling. Among Ameri- cans, more religious individuals were more inclined to view extraterrestri- als as hostile or untrustworthy; less religious people were more likely to think that extraterrestrials would be benevolent. Pessimistic Americans tended to believe that a message would be religiously significant.'° This is consistent with earlier findings by sociologist William Bainbridge, who thought that there might be something in irreligiousness that encour- ages support of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. Religious and nonreligious individuals may respond quite differently to a detection. This is particularly true in what may be the most likely scenario, in which we know little about the aliens.’ Our first impressions of the extraterrestrials would be crucial. Those impressions, Harrison predicted, will reflect our experiences and expecta- tions, the images and prejudices that we carry around in our heads, other people’s perspectives, and political-historical contexts.” Emotional Reactions