psychology alien contact

[SirGeneralSir]

im trying to figure out what would happen on earth if we humans had clearly made contact with alien life or seen CLEARLY alien ships in a way that it could not be denied or anything.

what would people most likely do?

im sure there might be some mass suicides from SOME religious zealots, but other than that, what might happen?

[GeorgeGlass]

Some people, fearing an invasion, would go survivalist and begin stockpiling guns and ammunition, building bomb shelters, etc.

A smaller number of people would look to the aliens as potential saviors.

Attendance at religious services would rise, both because of fear and because the appearance of intelligent extraterrestrial life would shake many people's worldview.

Many people would be desperate to find any scrap of information about the aliens.

Governments would do anything possible to get hold of alien technology.

Fashion and design trends would emerge that would be inspired by the aliens' apparent aesthetic.

That's all I can think of for the moment.

[SirGeneralSir]

humm.

im working on a story where its almost a nuke war, the nukes go up but vanish, alien ships appear and later send a world wide message of "to find out why, come find us"

i want to see what people might act like after that *we just save your ass and you know it* sort of mentality or something*

[BronxWench]

People are rarely grateful for having their asses saved. We are, by and large, deeply mistrustful because we've only barely scratched the surface of being civilized. You have only to examine history to see how well we deal with strangers, and aliens are the ultimate stranger.

[GeorgeGlass]

humm.

im working on a story where its almost a nuke war, the nukes go up but vanish, alien ships appear and later send a world wide message of "to find out why, come find us"

i want to see what people might act like after that *we just save your ass and you know it* sort of mentality or something*

People are rarely grateful for having their asses saved. We are, by and large, deeply mistrustful because we've only barely scratched the surface of being civilized. You have only to examine history to see how well we deal with strangers, and aliens are the ultimate stranger.

It's true. My first response to the "to find out why, come to us" message might well be, "They want to sell the nukes back to the highest bidder."

[BronxWench]

It's true. My first response to the "to find out why, come to us" message might well be, "They want to sell the nukes back to the highest bidder."

Or perhaps the knee-jerk "It's a trap!" response, which requires having a bigger stick than you think they do before you take them up on the invite.

[SirGeneralSir]

very good points, in ether case this .... mentality to find out why, will be the driving force to obtain the ability to explore the galaxy and find these guys.

i just need some of the who what and why things get nasty in the starting.

im thinking that aside from the mass suicides that would remove the idiots from the equation, there might be some small skirmishes between factions in the light of the sides that want to just go and destroy them, ones that want to find and be friends and the lets find out what they want first sides.

because the real kicker is that, all we see is the ships all over the world, no videos of what they look like or anything, but we know that they exist now and that they are very advanced.

i think there would be some ..... cults? of religious zealots that would want to keep us out of space, hidden away and want to destroy anything that would support finding the aliens kind of like in the movie ..... damn it, i cant think of its name but it has a sphere where one person is sent into .... hyper space but there is a cult that wants to stop the launch of the ship.

it was a dumb movie, kind of tricky but interesting ..... just a bit.

[GeorgeGlass]

I believe you're thinking of CONTACT, starring Jodie Foster.

[SirGeneralSir]

yeah thats the movie.

im also looking at some clips from the hitchhikers guide to the universe where people are just going nuts.

im still in note taking stage of the story, its a long ways off

[Cuzosu]

It would depend on a number of things, really. True, humans are paranoid, mistrustful creatures, but situations can affect our reactions, too. If, say, aliens appeared any time around a war or natural disaster, humans would be extremely wary and prone to lashing out at the slightest provocation...not that we don't do these kinds of things anyway.

Essentially, the more negative the situation surrounding the alien arrival, the more negatively humans would view them. The reverse is true, to a degree, but humans aren't very good at looking on the positive side, so the number of alien-positive humans would be relatively low even in a good situation.

I'm tired and hungry, so I'm not going to delve any further into the psychology at the moment, but I hope this helps.