Options
Is there anybody out there? : Can individual loneliness, need for closure, and religiosity predict the belief in extraterrestrial life and intelligence?
Döbler, Niklas Alexander; El Amri, Yassin; Carbon, Claus-Christian (2023): Is there anybody out there? : Can individual loneliness, need for closure, and religiosity predict the belief in extraterrestrial life and intelligence?, in: Discover Psychology, Cham: Springer International Publishing, Jg. 3, Nr. 1, S. 1–33, doi: 10.1007/s44202-023-00076-4.
Faculty/Chair:
Author:
Title of the Journal:
Discover Psychology
ISSN:
2731-4537
Publisher Information:
Year of publication:
2023
Volume:
3
Issue:
1
Pages:
Language:
English
Abstract:
Thinking about the universe also includes thinking about hypothetical extraterrestrial intelligence. Two key questions arise: Why are we thinking about them in the first place? And why are we anthropomorphizing them? One possible explanation may be that the belief in extraterrestrials results from a subjective feeling of loneliness or the need for closure. Results of an online questionnaire (N = 130) did not reveal a confident and consistent correlation between personal feelings of aloneness or need for closure and belief in extraterrestrial life or intelligence. The same was true for the anthropomorphic representation of extraterrestrial intelligence. The belief in extraterrestrial life was negatively linked to frequent religious activity, and to a lesser and more uncertain extent, to the belief in extraterrestrial intelligence. As evidenced by their parameter estimates, participants demonstrated an intuitive grasp of the probabilities inherent in the Drake equation. However, there was significant variability in the solutions provided. When asked to describe hypothetical extraterrestrials, participants mainly assessed them in terms connoted with physical appearance, neutral to humans, and partially influenced by anthropomorphism. Given the severe limitations, we conservatively conclude that individual loneliness is indeed individual and does not break the final frontier, that is, space.
GND Keywords: ; ;
Anthropomorphismus
Außerirdisches Leben
Außerirdische Intelligenz
Keywords: ; ; ; ;
Loneliness
Belief in extraterrestrial intelligence
Anthropomorphism
Drake equation
Need for closure
DDC Classification:
RVK Classification:
Type:
Article
Activation date:
July 25, 2023
Research Data:
Project(s):
Versioning
Question on publication
Permalink
https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/89685