Considerations of inner space and outer space got me to thinking more about how we see the world and if those differences have an impact on how we engage with it. We've all met people who jump head first into any adventure or those that hesitate to step outside their comfort zone even a little bit. The plots of countless television shows and movies involve main characters at odds with one another about how they see the world. This creates tension, and excitement for the viewer. Think about the shows you're binging on Netflix right now...does this plot device show up?
This question led me to the work of Jer Clifton, a researcher just up the road from me at the University of Pennsylvania. His research on what he calls primal world beliefs has sought to answer these very questions, and has done so in a rather fascinating and insightful way. These "primals", as he's termed them, are essentially the basic beliefs we have about the world that drive much of our decision making and ultimately shape the lens through which we see the world. These perceptions of the world not only impact the choices we make, but they impact our physical wellbeing. We release markedly different hormones depending on whether we are on alert or joyfully entering a new situation. Our stress levels modulate differently, and our focus on other priorities shifts accordingly.
Clifton's research began in 2013, and after analyzing thousands of data sources, they arrived at 26 distinct primal world beliefs. Of these, three seemed to have an outsized influence on human behavior. You can take the full survey here and discover your primal world beliefs.
Of these three, we can begin with the question of how you see the world. This is our Safe vs. Dangerous world belief. Folks who score low here are painfully aware that the world is a dangerous place, and we all need to be careful from the moment we walk out the door. By contrast, those that score high don't see those same threats and generally think folks need to calm down a bit and enjoy the world around them. It can certainly be easier to see the dangers in the world, especially with the current news cycle, so looking past that can take some work.
The second primal addresses the question of how much interest and beauty we see in the world. The Enticing vs. Dull world belief asks us to consider whether we notice the beauty all around us or are more aware of the dull, ugly, boring aspects of the world. I'm guessing I could predict your world view here with a degree of confidence by asking for your opinion of large cities like New York and Philadelphia.
The final primal taps into a fairly fundamental philosophical question. The Alive vs. Mechanistic world view questions whether we see the world as all interconnected and thoughtfully planned or as more of a mindless machine of which we are all replaceable cogs. As you can imagine, folks with religious beliefs tend to see the world as more alive, but others certainly do as well.
When these primal world views were examined further, they also found several things that held true. First, these primals are generally stable, so they don't tend to change much over time, much like personality traits. Second, they are rather hidden and certain primals can't be mapped onto certain identity traits. We can't predict who will hold what world view simply be looking at them. Lastly, these primal world views are correlated with how we live our lives and our wellbeing and mental health.
So, thinking about these primal world views in the context of our earlier inner world/ outer world discussion, I'm willing to bet that we tend to gravitate towards others that share our same primal world views. We are more likely to see the actions of those who share our views as logical and rational, and to trust the opinions of those individuals. Thus, as I've indicated before, building relationships with those in our out groups, who occupy our outer space, can literally open our eyes to different world views!
