Our strangest beliefs, explained
A study of the context of belief in alien visitation reveals that most of our brains are functioning in the exact same way; we might just be reaching different conclusions.
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As a science writer who focuses on the truth behind urban legends, I often find the context of a particular story to be the most interesting part. What was going on in the world, in people’s lives, that created a need to believe in this weird thing? It’s a much richer topic than simply “Oh this dumb urban legend was bunk.”
In a couple of weeks I’ve got a Skeptoid episode coming out about a fictional and fantastical time machine called the Chronovisor, that a Benedictine monk claimed to have created. Why would he have tried to convince the world of this obvious falsehood? I propose that part of the answer was found in the context. He was living in a world where science was taking over from religion, making him and his church feel increasingly marginalized. So he co-opted the name of Wernher von Braun, whose Saturn V rockets had just landed Apollo 16 on the Moon, and who allegedly helped him build this machine that allowed us to witness religious miracles throughout history. It wasn’t just a crazy hoax; it was, consciously or not, an attempt to recover his relevance in a world that was leaving him behind.
When it comes to the increasingly widespread belief that UFOs are alien visitors, we can apply this same method in the hope of better understanding it. What is it in people’s lives that makes them so susceptible to such an improbable belief, to the point that they take it so passionately that it’s almost a religion?
Many have written on this. There’s a related idea called the Psychosocial UFO Hypothesis that attempts to explain UFOs as examples of things like collective hallucinations, dreams, misperceptions; but it’s more of a transactional model, considering explanations on a per-sighting basis. It doesn’t look for an overall cause of the phenomenon in general.
When I talk about the context of the UFO/alien phenomenon, I’m not looking at any individual reports, or even any particular people. I mean the things happening in the world and in our lives that are common to all of us, and that we all find different ways to respond. Since the UFOlogists made that initial publication in December 2017, the media has been screaming at the public that aliens are in our skies, and so it’s one thing that some people have latched onto as their coping mechanism.
Here are my ideas for some of the things we’re all (Alien Truthers included) coping with:
Searching for Meaning in a Complex World: In a world that is increasingly complex and sometimes overwhelming, the idea of alien visitation can provide a sense of wonder or mystery. It offers an escape from the mundane and a chance to believe in something beyond our current understanding.
Distrust in Authorities and Mainstream Science: A growing distrust in governmental institutions and mainstream scientific explanations can lead people to seek alternative narratives. UFOs as alien visitations offer a counter-narrative that challenges official accounts and perceived cover-ups.
Influence of Media and Pop Culture: Movies, TV shows, and books about aliens have profoundly influenced public perception. The depiction of UFOs and extraterrestrial life in popular media can blur the lines between fiction and reality, making the idea of alien visitation more plausible to some people.
Technological Advancements and Space Exploration: As our technology advances, especially in the realm of space exploration, the idea that other intelligent life forms could be visiting us becomes less far-fetched. These advancements make the universe seem more accessible and interconnected.
Psychological Need for Belonging and Identity: Believing in UFOs and alien visitation can be part of a subculture or community with its own beliefs and rituals. This can fulfill a psychological need for belonging and identity, especially for those who feel marginalized or disillusioned with mainstream society.
Response to Societal Stress and Uncertainty: During times of societal stress, economic hardship, or global uncertainty, beliefs in extraordinary phenomena can increase. Such beliefs can provide comfort or a sense of control in a world that seems chaotic or threatening.
Historical and Mythological Contexts: Human history is rich with stories of gods and otherworldly beings visiting Earth. These historical and mythological contexts can influence modern beliefs in alien visitation, as they tap into deep-seated archetypes and narratives.
Desire for Advanced Knowledge and Solutions: In an era of global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and political strife, the idea that aliens could offer advanced knowledge or solutions is appealing. It embodies a hope that beyond our planet, there are beings with the wisdom and technology to solve our problems.
You might notice that a lot of these sound familiar, and they are. They underlie many strange beliefs. They are particularly descriptive of conspiracy theorists. But notice that they are also true of people with very high religiosity: religion can be just as much a coping mechanism as conspiracy ideation, belief in alien visitation, militant anticorporatism or libertarianism, New Age obsession, obsession with debunking everything, or whatever it is that some people push just a little too far.
So even if a person is not a hardcore alien visitation advocate, if they are a little too hardcore about anything it may very well be the exact same way to cope with context.
After all, we’re all the same human beings.
I'm not so sure that you need to invoke the possible role of modern events and attitudes on the belief in UFOs since 4 out of 5 Americans already believe in an all-powerful supernatural being (primarily a Christian God), and many of them have had a transformative event involving a close contact with their deity.
What would be interesting to compare the prevalence of UFO-belief in people who atheist versus religious. While I have no direct data to support this idea, I suspect that the trend toward increasing atheism in the "West" has been accompanied in an increasing faith in "alternative medicine", a misnomer which is primarily alternative (and faith-based), but almost devoid of science-based medicine.
What's really interesting to me is why there appears to be a profound belief in the invisible or the imagined, across many cultures and historical times. Is this merely a by-product of some other neurological process that has persisted over the relatively short period of human evolution? Or is it, as I believe, a genetic trait for which there is a strong natural selection? If so, what is the survival advantage in the ability to believe in the existence of things which are not objectively present?
Among the many possible advantages of a persistent belief in the particular supernatural being chosen by a tribe, perhaps this creates tribal cohesion, supporting the protection of the tribe against outside threats, where sacrifice of an individual becomes less important than the survival of the particular group. (Such paradoxical sacrifice is often seen among other species).
Religious differences continue to be a major threat to the survival of a large fraction of the population, which would normally be a negative genetic trait that would be selected against, so it seems to me that there is likely a powerful genetic force in play that keeps us engaged with the supernatural.
Of course, the phenomenon might be largely cultural and educational, since children are often exposed to supernatural truths at an early age: in my own case, in the UK, I was continually told about the reality of God, and religious study was presented as simply one more subject that I was required to take, such as French, Geography or Chemistry.
I have seen a UFO many years ago on a very clear cloudless night. Following what looked like a satellite tracking east to west, it suddenly took off at incredible speeds in a perpendicular path and disappeared in a second. How do you explain that?