One of the most important insights in all of psychology is that prior beliefs matter. Whether it's a place such as a university, a person such as a boss, or a group such as "liberals," our prior expectations about any topic of belief has a profound impact on how we interpret and interact with it. If we see a person as dangerous, for example, we will interpret everything they do in a more suspicious light.

I have spent a decade studying extremely basic beliefs about the broad qualities of the world as a whole. Researchers call these beliefs "primal world beliefs" or primals for short. Humans hold many different primals, including the beliefs that the world is abundant (versus barren) and getting better (versus worse). But most primals boil down into two beliefs: the beliefs that the world is a safe place with few threats (Safe world belief) and full of beautiful or interesting things (Enticing world belief).

These two beliefs appear to shape a great deal about a person. In one study, we showed that seeing the world as dangerous is tied to seeing murder, theft, and other crimes as being about 4.2x as high as those who see it as safe. Seeing the world as enticing also seems to be a major contributor to mental health and resilience.

Nevertheless, in a study........

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