Security
Security as a Schwartz value refers to the motivational goal of safety, harmony, and stability — for oneself, for one's close relationships, and for society. Unlike most values, Security serves both individual interests (personal safety, financial stability, health) and collective interests (social order, national security, predictable institutions). Schwartz identifies Security as one of two values — along with Universalism — that span the individual-collective boundary.
Position in the Circumplex
Security belongs to the Conservation cluster alongside Conformity and Tradition. All three values emphasize maintenance of existing arrangements — the status quo, established norms, and protection of what already exists rather than pursuit of change and novelty.
Adjacent: Conformity (both emphasize self-restraint and preservation of social order) and, at the border, Power (both are concerned with control — Security through protection, Power through dominance).
Opposing: Stimulation and Self-Direction. Stimulation seeks novelty and challenge, which directly introduce uncertainty — the opposite of security. Self-Direction seeks autonomous choice-making, which can disrupt the predictable arrangements that Security requires. A person who highly prioritizes Security typically scores lower on both.
High Priority
People for whom Security is a top priority are organized around the preservation and protection of stability. This shows up across domains in ways that are often misread as risk-aversion when they are better understood as a stable motivational orientation toward what is safe and predictable.
In work, Security-dominant people tend to prefer roles with clear expectations, stable employment, and predictable outcomes over roles offering high reward but high uncertainty. They are not necessarily less ambitious — they tend to organize their ambition around secure paths rather than speculative ones.
In financial decisions, Security priority produces consistent preference for preservation over growth — lower risk tolerance not as a personality quirk but as a genuine expression of what matters.
In relationships and social contexts, Security-dominant people invest in the stability of their close relationships and communities. Disruption of established social arrangements — even positive disruption — tends to be experienced as threatening rather than exciting.
Low Priority
Low Security priority means that stability and protection are not primary motivational goals. Risk and uncertainty do not generate the same aversive response. This does not mean recklessness — low Security priority people still want their basic needs met — but they do not experience the maintenance of existing arrangements as intrinsically important. Change is more tolerable; uncertainty is more acceptable.
The Characteristic Tension
Security's most common tension is with Self-Direction and Stimulation. Autonomous exploration and the pursuit of novelty require accepting uncertainty — which is precisely what Security seeks to minimize. A person who prioritizes both Security and Self-Direction will frequently face decisions where the pull toward autonomous choice conflicts with the pull toward maintaining what is safe and predictable.
In Relation to Other Systems
Security is associated with Big Five Conscientiousness (particularly Cautiousness and Dutifulness) and with lower Big Five Openness (particularly Adventurousness). In the Enneagram, Security priority is most prominent in Type 6, whose core orientation is organized around managing uncertainty and seeking reliable safety — though Security as a value appears across type configurations.