Why we imagine aliens the way we do

When you picture an alien, what do you see?

No one really knows what aliens look like, but we all have similar ideas about them. It's often a creature with a big head, long arms and legs, and big, buggy eyes. We see these common images of aliens depicted in movies, books, and on TV shows - which are made by us.

Science fiction stories often explore the relationship between humans and aliens. So we find extraterrestrial creatures endowed with relatable human features. According to Charley Henley, a VFX supervisor who worked on Ridley Scott's Alien series, "A lot of [Scott's] designs are tied in with the human anatomy, and I think that is the common theme. We put a lot of humans into the aliens." In our stories, we naturally anthropomorphize these creatures - so they end up looking, acting, and feeling just like us.

19th March 2018