If you were to ask democracy scholars what they consider the greatest threat to American democracy, you might assume it is voters who support undemocratic practices or policies. But the real answer may surprise you: These voters are not the main problem. According to a recent study from the University of Notre Dame, voters who are comfortable living in the middle — neither agreeing nor disagreeing when asked about substantive issues relevant to upholding democracy — might be the largest group to blame for democratic decline in the United States.

April 21, 2026, Mountain View, CA -- The SETI Institute announced the launch of the Discovery and Futures Lab, a new interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to understanding the global scientific, philosophical, and societal dimensions of discovering life beyond Earth.

The Discovery and Futures Lab’s mission is to anticipate and explore humanity’s responses to the discovery of life beyond Earth by connecting science with other kinds of research. It unites experts in astrobiology, SETI, social science, ethics, law, communication research, futures studies, and more to examine implications and guide preparedness.

"I'm incredibly excited to be a part of the Discovery and Futures Lab at the SETI Institute,” said Lucian Walkowicz, Co-Director of the Lab. “I see this effort as part of the SETI Institute's longstanding commitment to responsible science, and I hope it will be a transformative research accelerator for how we understand and communicate about the discovery process in the search for life."

 

In a world that feels like it's growing more negative by the day it may be a surprise that talking about what we're against has its value, at least when it comes to engaging people who disagree with us.

Over a series of studies with nearly 6,000 people, researcher Rhia Catapano tested what happened when participants were presented with viewpoints they disagreed with and how open they were to them when those viewpoints were expressed in support terms instead of oppositional ones. Think of "I support abortion rights," versus "I'm against making abortion illegal."

Turns out, those two ways of expressing the same idea can land very differently with someone else. And we're really good at getting that wrong.