Uniformity of motive

In astrobiology, Uniformity of Motive is an essential premise for many of the explanations to Fermi's Paradox (e.g. Zoo Hypothesis). It states that different alien cultures will have the same conduct regarding reaching other extraterrestrial intelligence. Consequently, we could for instance be made unaware of their presence as a result of a common policy not to communicate with us, a lesser civilization.

“If there is a plurality of alien cultures, however, the Zoo theory may breakdown under the uniformity of motive concept because it would take just a single extraterrestrial civilization to decide to act contrary to the imperative within our range of detection for it to be abrogated, and the probability of such a violation increases with the number of civilizations (Crawford 2000).”