Researchers who study attribution theory and cognitive bias [1,2,3] point out the dangers of assuming others will have the same values, motivations, constraints, and behaviors that we do. The world, it turns out, is not populated with carbon copies of ourselves.
While exploring the possibility that extra-terrestrials (ETs) have visited Earth in a new book I wrote with Eric Haseltine, “The New Science of UFOs: New insights into an old mystery,” it occurred to me that, in investigating the origins of UFOs, it is also critical to avoid “projecting” ourselves onto others, especially when those “others” might not be from Earth.
For example, a common argument against the possibility that ETs are behind some UFO sightings is that no intelligent life form could survive the rigors of interstellar travel to get here from far distant planets, or could survive the extreme accelerations that some UFOs, such as those reported by Navy pilots in 2004 and 2015 have exhibited (the equivalent of crashing into a brick wall going hundreds of miles an hour).
But astrobiology, the study of life beyond Earth, suggests that these arguments, grounded in human biology, could be flawed.
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