threat as an anchor in social systems

when situations are difficult to understand, 

then a threat could be an anchor in different individuals' perception of situations, 

like an island that is used as a reference point to navigate in the sea, 

it's not the danger of a threat that creates common understanding, 

it's that different individuals could get a common understanding based on a threat 

example: 

different countries that are enemies against each other know that nuclear war could be bad for every country 

a common threat is an anchor for those countries 

countries might have different needs, 

but they have the same reference point to base their needs around

factory worlers know that if they misbehave too much, 

then factory could be closed down 

and workers could risk becoming unemployed 

a common threat is an anchor for those workers, 

workers might have different opinions, 

but they have the same reference point to base their opinions around