I came across this article which prompted me to ask the question.

"A Study Made Conservatives Turn Liberal With a Thought Experiment - For a Little While"

[sciencealert.com]

It does seem, based on antidotal evidence, that agnostics and atheists tend to lean more to the center and left of center politically even when they have reasons to be fearful. There are exceptions, of course. Quoting from the article:

"Research has shown that you can make liberals more conservative by threatening them and making them somewhat afraid," Yale psychology professor John Bargh writes in his new book, "Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do," which was released Tuesday.

Several studies have shown that when social scientists get liberal-leaning experiment subjects to think about their own deaths or make them feel threatened, some left-wingers adopt more conservative values."

In another study noted in the article it states:

"People embrace political conservatism (at least in part) because it serves to reduce fear, anxiety, and uncertainty; to avoid change, disruption, and ambiguity; and to explain, order, and justify inequality among groups and individuals."

The article mentions findings in several studies showing that political conservatives tend to have increased gray matter volume in their right amygdala (associated with fear) --- that this part of the brain is more active than those leaning to the left.

In the experiment that turned conservatives into liberals they found:

"Liberal participants' attitudes on social issues didn't shift at all. The conservative participants, on the other hand, started adopting more liberal views on social issues (though not economic ones.)"

So, I'm thinking: if most agnostics and atheist tend to not have existential concerns, and not likely dominated by their amygdala, are we less likely to be influenced by fear and become more conservative?

This has not been the case with me (becoming more conservative), even though I've had reasons to be fearful, and I think we have much to be concerned about with regard to the state of the U.S. and elsewhere.

Taking all these mainstream studies into consideration, another thought I had was that deliberately promoting and/or creating fear and anxiety (like many authoritarian religions do) could be (and likely has been) a strategy used by those in power to turn more moderates and liberals into conservatives.

Generally speaking, do agnostics and atheists tend to be immune (for lack of a better word) to these influences?