Factfulness: Ten Reasons why we are horribly wrong about the world we live in
What if I tell you that there out of every 1000 children born in Somalia, 66 children die due to lower respiratory infect and other neonatal disorders? How about the fact that the climate is changing and the threat of destruction is looming large on humankind? I am sure you would agree with me when I say that the world was a much better place before we were born. But what if we both are wrong? What if the lens through which we view the world is actually turned inward and whatever we see is a function of our conditioning and cognitive biases and not based on facts at all. My own personal biases were broken when I read the bestselling book “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling. Advocated by the software baron Bill Gates himself, Factfulness provides a robust framework to base your decisions on facts and steer away from the illusions that distort our worldview and debunks the beliefs that have plagued the human minds for decades now. He has arrived at 10 thumb rules to develop a statistically backed worldview that world is much better than what we perceive to be.
Some of the reasons for distortion of the worldview are:
Human beings are fundamentally illogical
The Nobel prize-winning study by Daniel Kahneman elaborates that there are more than 50 cognitive biases which include confirmation bias, the bandwagon effect etc. which leads us to think irrationally. Human beings can store anywhere between 10 terabytes to 100 terabytes of data but we have neither the capacity nor the time to correctly process such a large amount of data and provide a logical result. We often base our decisions on snap judgements rather than logic.
Role of Media
Media plays a big role in shaping the worldview of the people. According to the popular theory called availability heuristic, people rely on recent events while evaluating any particular event, topic or a situation. Since bad things can happen quickly but the good things take time to develop and as it unfolds it falls out of sight of the media. Therefore, a large population fail to realise that there is incremental progress happening around the world. Also, according to research conducted by Kalev Leetaru every article published in New York Times between 1945 and 2015, the language journalists are using has become gloomier and much more negative over time despite all scientific and social developments around the world. Therefore, rather than being better informed heavy news watchers have become miscalibrated and delusioned by the TRP-mongers.
False Notion about people around them
The reasons for people to give too much credit too often to the innate characteristics of people rather than having a fact-based view. For example, when we talk about the progress of India over the past four years, we attribute it to Mr Narendra Modi without realising the fact that he could not possibly be doing the entire work himself. There must be a team of highly qualified politicians, bureaucrats and activists that must be working for him day in day out.
Unlike the ten commandments of Bible or the five pillars of Islam, Factfulness is not a worldview or a set of opinions of the selected sect of the society. It is a way of life meant for the everyone staying along the latitudes and longitudes of the earth. It allows people to look through the increasingly blurring lines between the fact and the fiction and develop a perspective based on facts that are infused with empathy and a bias for action. Hans Rosling advises to be unprejudiced and keep an open mindset and to be curious and open to new information. This will allow one to embrace different possibilities, views and suggestions. If Bill Gates can then so can we.
Sources
[1] Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
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