If extra-terrestrials ever call Earth, only one in 10 Brits would want a referendum to decide how to respond, a new survey had found.
Despite Michael Gove claiming in 2016 that "the people in this country have had enough of experts", the survey of 2,000 people by researchers at the University of Oxford appears to show the opposite.
In the event that aliens do attempt to contact us, the largest proportion (39%) of those surveyed would choose "a team of scientists" to be the people in charge of the decision-making.
That's roughly three times more than those who would choose the option of "elected representatives" (15%), or "a citizen’s assembly of randomly selected adults" (12%).
The least popular option was "a planet-wide referendum", which attracted only 11% of the vote.
If they were forced to vote in a planet wide referendum, 56% of people in the UK would vote in favour of initiating contact with aliens, according to the survey.
This compared to 20.5% who said they didn't know, 14% who would vote to not initiate contact, and 9.2% who would not vote in the referendum.
Dr Leah Trueblood, from the Department of Law at the University of Oxford said the results are "interesting for understanding the connection between science and democracy".
There have previously been referendums around the globe on topics such as Nuclear power, fracking and genetic engineering.
While the public are not necessarily equipped with the information needed to make such a decision during a referendum, Dr Trueblood suggested they may have an important role to play.
"The referendums would give us a broader public view and would be useful if used in conjunction with scientific representatives," she said.
Dr Trueblood added it was interesting so many people had responded "I don't know", suggesting the public may be open-minded about what decision-making processes are best for humanity.
"In this age of political polarisation, people being open to persuasion is good news," she said.
The results also revealed that men (65%) were more likely to vote to initiate contact than women (47%) and Brexit Remain voters (66%) were more likely to vote to initiate contact than Leave voters (54%).
Scientists are actually already trying to make contact with aliens.
A non-profit research organisation called METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) sent a message to Luyten's Star, located just over 12 light years away, in 2017.
It will be 2041 when the message returns.
"No-one knows if or when we will receive a message from extra-terrestrials, but astronomers are listening - and it could happen any time," said Dr Peter Hatfield, from the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford
"If we do receive a message it is encouraging to know that the public seem to have confidence in scientists having a key role in the decision making process of potentially replying."
When asked what messages she would send back to the alien life, Dr Trueblood replied "my grandma's apple crumble recipe".
The poll results were revealed at the British Science Festival, which is taking place from 10–13 September in Coventry and Warwickshire, hosted by the University of Warwick.
