How Fear of a Physical Threat Can Foster Social Conservatism [psmag.com]

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a less-rigid social conservative!

That's a less-than-tantalizing tagline for the next Superman movie. But it does reflect the findings of a new study, which finds that conservatives are less resistant to social change if they imagine they have a superpower that makes them impervious to physical harm.

"Safety and security can foster more progressive attitudes," writes a research team led by psychologist Jaime Napier of New York University–Abu Dhabi. "Just as threats can turn liberals into conservatives, safety can turn conservatives into liberals—at last while those feelings of threat or safety last."

[For more on this story by TOM JACOBS, go to https://psmag.com/news/how-fea...-social-conservatism]