Aliens are real, and the government is covering up their existence. This seemed to be the general consensus in my student days; everyone thought that global leaders were keeping such a monumental discovery to themselves because they thought knowledge of this kind would lead to panic and hysteria in the world's population. Well, it appears that our assumption of benevolent concern for our mental well-being was misplaced. Michael Varnum, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University, has conducted research into how humankind would react to the news of the discovery of extra-terrestrial life. His team analysed public reaction to news reports announcing 'discoveries' of this kind which later turned out to be spurious; for example, the discredited 1996 announcement of fossilized microbes on Mars. They looked at words used in news reports, government memos and press releases and determined whether they were negative or positive about the discoveries. The vocabulary in these documents was also judged to determine whether it indicated a greater sense of risk or reward. Overall, society considered news about alien life to be positive and reward-oriented. Of course, this is all hypothetical, and the reports were about microbial life and not enemy spacecrafts; however.