Arthur C. BrooksThe Art and Science of Happiness

Is Our Culture Too Obsessed With Safety?

11 Mar 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:04

In this short monologue, Arthur C. Brooks critiques the pervasive “safetyism” in contemporary American culture, especially within schools and parenting. He cites Jonathan Haidt’s work, particularly The Anxious Generation, which argues that over‑protective environments—safe spaces, trigger warnings, and parental shielding—function like a social peanut allergy, preventing people from encountering the “social allergens” needed to develop resilience. Brooks notes that Haidt provides data supporting this claim. He then presents two possible responses: (1) accept the status quo and let things continue, or (2) deliberately introduce modest, appropriate risks into one’s life to build strength and emotional robustness.

Chapters

Almost any place you look today, we talk about the culture of safety. In a lot of schools, for example, we have these safe spaces where people don't feel like they're threatened by ideas that they find especially objectionable. Safetyism is almost a cult among modern parents. Jonathan Haidt, who wrote The Anxious Generation, he talks about a safetyism where parents have shielded their kids from anything that's even remotely dangerous, and in so doing, he argues, he's stunted their development. The idea that we need more safety in our lives to get happier is hugely problematic because the truth is we have kind of a social peanut allergy. We haven't actually exposed ourselves to enough of the social allergens such that we can build up any sort of resiliency. That's Jonathan Haidt's argument, and he has the data to show that that's really true. So there's a couple of options here. If you agree that maybe there's too much safety in our culture and maybe a little too much safety in your life, you can just kind of let things happen the way that they do. Or here's another option: maybe you can expose yourself to a little danger, the right kind in the right dose. And if you do a little danger, might help you.