Mississauga Astronomical Society

Fiftyeight Meeting

     Speaker’s’ Night

Day:                Friday, March 10, 2006

Speaker:          Dr. James Alcock

UFO’s Belief in Search of Data

Dr. James Alcock is a professor of psychology, on staff at York University since 1973. He has an interest in the application of the science of psychology, and in the psychology of beliefs.

Dr. Alcock showed videos of UFO over Edinburgh, Mexico and Florida.  Media interest in UFO’s started in 1947 when a pilot reported objects and used the term “flying saucer”.  Soon after, something crashed near Roswell, NM.  Dr. Alcock discussed this incident.  Whereas the belief that aliens abduct people is totally an American phenomenon, the belief in fai-die, or flying saucers is currently very strong in China with 1/5 of current world reportings from that country.  How is it that people including experienced pilots mistakenly believe that they have witnessed alien spacecraft despite non-acceptance by scientists and others? To answer this we need to look at perception, memory and belief. 

When looking at perception, it is interesting to note that humans are the best pattern detectors that exist. We constantly find patterns and fill in the gaps organizing data in categories to fit our experience. By being selective and ignoring other things right in constructing our perception of reality, we can make errors and miss things as in the example of not seeing a gorilla in a game of basketball players.  Past experience influences perception dramatically.  Dr. Alcock showed examples of how our perception and interpretation of things are intertwined (e.g. hearing a satanic message in a Led Zepellin song played backwards) and therefore we cannot rely on other people’s accounts especially in strange and emotional circumstances.  What we “see” is determined by schema we use in such a situation (i.e. believing that an unidentified object in the sky is an alien spaceship) and thus can see things that are not really there.

Memory is a re-construction, not a video based on categories in our shema. Thus people can “remember” things that they did not truly see. Reconstruction is influenced by attitude, set, belief and events that occurred since the event. Memory is very malleable. If you believe that alien spaceships are visiting earth, normal perception will fit it into the schema.   

Beliefs are deeply held e.g. that the Earth is round, but what is the evidence? Beliefs are the product of experience without thought, from being taught by an authority, from conformity to group beliefs or due to logical analyzing.  Children are taught truths and falsehoods; they are influenced by parents, teachers, authorities; their beliefs continue into adulthood buoyed by books, celebrities, films, experts.  Belief depends on the order in which it is acquired.  Beliefs make us vulnerable.  Primitive beliefs are ones that we do not question e.g. “things fall”, “there is a God”, “there are invisible creatures all around us”.

Prior beliefs foster more evidence  e.g. if we believe in UFO’s, we are more likely to interpret things as alien spacecraft when we see something.  Once such a thing is assigned to memory, it becomes more like that object (e.g. it is a UFO). We then strive to form an interpretation that is unassailable (e.g. unable to convince the person that it was not really a UFO).  Confidence in the memory and emotionality suggest to others that the account is true (e.g. it really was a UFO).  When a group shares a common interest, they provide emotional support to each other’s belief and is helpful in fending off sceptics (e.g. alien abduction support group), and often go on to develop conspiracy theories explaining the lack of physical evidence (e.g. government is hiding evidence).  The group also lends a sense of importance to the members who now feel that they are in the “forefront” and their mission is to convince the rest of the world of their belief (e.g. that alien spacecraft are visiting us).  The group gives members the sense of belonging and acceptance wherein they can state their belief without fear of ridicule. In addition aliens can now be viewed as beings who are coming from afar to save the Earth from its follies.  Some people become dogmatic and their beliefs are rigid even in the face of counterarguments and evidence. Others have overvalued ideas in which the whole world is built around their beliefs. 

Dr. Alcock compared parapsychology with UFOlogy.  Both these schemata have no convergence with science. When all normal causes are ruled out, the parapsychologist assumes precognition and the UFOlogist alien spacecraft despite no evidence for their beliefs. There is no improvement in data over time, no falsifiability.  Whereas it would be easy to convince a scientist in the reality of alien spacecraft by hard evidence such as materials, convincing photos, rather than just eyewitness reports, it would be very difficult to convince UFOlogists of the lack of alien spacecraft.  Therefore the discussion about UFO’s is unbalanced.

Many question ensued after this enlightening presentation.  

Submitted by Chris Malicki, Secretary  Chris Malicki, Secretary                               back to M.A.S. meeting reports page
Mississauga Astronomical Society