Primal World Beliefs

Primal world beliefs, or “primals” for short, are extremely basic beliefs about the world as a whole, such as the belief the world is dangerous. 

Our primal world beliefs impact us constantly and influence health,depression, success, optimism, well-being, extroversion…most life outcomes people care about.

All primal world beliefs are:

• Stable: Primals can change but in practice they are as stable across time as personality traits like extraversion. This means many people likely spend decades holding the same world beliefs.

• Hidden: Primals are not that related to demographic factors. For example, people who are rich do not see the world as more abundant than people who are poor. Men don’t see the world as safer than women. This means you can’t tell someone’s primals by looking at them.

• Correlated: Primals are correlated to how we live our lives and our mental health. For example, Safe world belief is very strongly correlated to trust and less depression. Enticing is very strongly correlated to curiosity, gratitude, and happiness. Alive is strongly correlated to spirituality and having purpose in life. This means that, across a wide range of behaviors, humans act rationally given their primals.

  To learn your own primal world beliefs

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