This is arguably one of the most important books for everyone to read. In this digital age, information spreads like wildfire, whether it is accurate or not. It is our responsibility to ensure that the information we consume and share is accurate. This goes from simple reading of data as marketers, to sharing our views on world subjects. In his book, Hans Rosling shares some of our common megamisconceptions and instincts that get in the way of facts.
Quick Notes:
Be wary of megamisconceptions and make a conscious effort to avoid them. These are significant misconceptions that mess up our understanding of the world. One example of this is Westerners' "us versus them" mentality where the West and the East are seen as fundamentally different. This also extends to the idea of the "developed world" vs the "developing world." It is important to shed these outdated worldviews and seek understanding from factual representations of reality.
Our negativity instincts leads us to believe that the world is getting worse. This in part due to overexposure of negative events in news outlets which are more accessible than ever in this day and age. The fact is that almost every measurable aspect of life has improved, from life expectancy to poverty.
When looking at charts and graphs, our straight line instincts make us believe that a line will keep going in a certain direction, but this is almost never the case. Population growth is an example of this where we might believe that the population is constantly increasing in a straight line. The fact is that while mortality rates have decreased, as the world develops, birth rates are also decreasing and the world population is expected to plateau between 2060-2100.
Our fear and size instincts tend to overestimate the likelihood of negative scenarios occurring. Our fear instincts are evolutionarily encoded in us as we have used it as a means for survival as a species. Our size instincts are formed from the lack of of a reference point when looking at numbers, and the sense of negativity is amplified by our fear instincts. For example, frequent exposure to crime reports can make people think that crime rates have risen over the years, but the fact is that crime rates have dropped significantly in the last two decades.
Having appropriate context is extremely important when dealing with data. There is a tendency to overgeneralise and make judgements without sufficient context. For example, one might think that we live in horrid times when seeing a report that there were 4 million baby deaths last year. However, when compared to 14.5 million baby deaths in 1960, this is actually great progress. This also applies to our understanding or races, cultures and religions. Some may hold the impression that Africa and the Middle East are still poverty stricken or have vast populations of uneducated women when the fact is that poverty has dropped significantly and education rates for women have increased drastically. Income plays a large part in a society's development and is a better gauge of progress - an increase in income is often accompanied with better healthcare, education and infrastructure.
The world is so complex. In order to have an accurate worldview, it is imperative to get as many perspectives as possible. It is easy to generalise or find a scapegoat in individual groups or people to put all blame on. However, when you dig deeper and expand your view of any situation, you will find that there are far more factors contributing to an outcome.
We need to fight our urgency instincts that lead us to make rash decisions or judgements. We will find a lot of exaggerated claims in the media. Sensationalisation and exaggeration are great ways for organisations and media outlets to capture people's attention and appeal to their emotions. However, when the facts are revealed, people will feel deceived, so it is important for both the media and for people to base information on accurate facts to create an accurate worldview and build credibility and trust between us.
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