Assumptions of Vulnerability Divide Politics

People disagree not just about policies but about who counts as a victim: liberals tend to treat vulnerability as group‑based (some groups are seen as systemically vulnerable), whereas conservatives treat vulnerability as individual and more evenly spread. That difference predicts moral judgments, implicit attitudes, and even giving, and it can be shifted experimentally. — Framing political debates as disputes over who counts as a victim redirects policy arguments (immigration, policing, welfare, environment, religion) toward managing perceptions of vulnerability rather than purely competing values.