Curiosity keeps unfamiliar things from automatically becoming threatening.

When you are curious about something unfamiliar, it stops being a threat and becomes a subject. The same encounter with a different orientation produces a completely different response, and the difference is largely whether you are asking about it or defending against it.

When something unfamiliar makes you uneasy, try converting the reaction into a question. What is this, where did it come from, why does it work this way, what would someone who knows it say. The curiosity does not require you to approve of the thing. It only changes what you are able to see about it.