Threat Ownership Theory: Toward a Greater Understanding of the Dynamic Link Between Threat and Political Attitudes

How do threatening events shape political attitudes? Some theories argue that threat increases support for conservatism. Others claim that threat reinforces preexisting political beliefs. Others argue that some threats can induce support for liberalism. Our theoretical approach attempts to reconcile these conflicting perspectives, proposing that people support the political ideas or entities they perceive as best able to address the threat they experience. In one meta‐analysis and one well‐powered experiment, we examined the effect of threat on political beliefs, in accordance with our theory. Our meta‐analysis aligned with expectations, indicating that the type of threat influenced the direction in which political beliefs shift. In our experimental study, we again manipulated the type of threat, with some threats being both left‐ and right‐wing politicized and others not. Although we anticipated results similar to our meta‐analysis, we found no consistent evidence that our manipulated threats influenced political beliefs. These findings imply the link between threat and political preferences is more tenuous than expected.