cover image After Contact

After Contact

Albert A. Harrison. Basic Books, $28.95 (390pp) ISBN 978-0-306-45621-3

Tackling the possible psychological and societal impact of alien contact on Earthlings, this is an unusually level-headed study of a controversial subject. Harrison, a UC-Davis psychology professor, delves into such topics as the way in which news of first contact will be spread via the media; the impact of a species possessing superior intelligence on the self-image of Earthlings; and how aliens and humans may or may not work together. He also plays the skeptic, providing possible explanations for the most common abduction stories and other ""false alarms,"" as well as debunking the growing paranoia about government cover-ups. Unfortunately, science--even social science as prodigiously footnoted as Harrison's--too often makes a poor match with a field of inquiry that is, at best, wholly speculative. In this wide-ranging book, Harrison helps to raise the level of thinking in the UFO debate; but only time will tell whether his rigorous considerations will have any real-world application. (Nov.)