The world is wrong about men. No, we are not secretly part of some tyrannical gender oppressor class, whose sole mission is to crush the spirit of women, to exploit their labour, and oppress them through fear of violence. There are certainly many men out there who do these things, far too many of them; but the reality is, that most men (the vast majority) are hugely supportive of women’s rights, and their hard won, thoroughly deserved freedoms. In fact, a recent working study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, that surveyed men and women across 60 countries (which covers about 80% of the world’s population) found that 91% of people support women’s freedom to work, which although being 9% too low, is far higher than what people expect that percentage to be. Yes, the study thought that number would be significantly (-20%) lower. More surprising, is the study found that we underestimate men’s support most all, particularly men in the developing world. Think about that. It seems like, the TV trope of the angry patriarchal man oppressing women in some far flung part of the world, isn’t particularly accurate either; and in fact, such a man is (statistically speaking) the most misunderstood demographic of all. The same survey found a similar detachment between reality and expectations when it comes to public support of affirmative action. Unlike the first question, people were found to overestimate public support for such policies, particularly in the West, and especially amongst women. Yup, not only do we underestimate how many men in the developing world support women’s rights, but the same study finds that we are similar naive about western women, in how little they actually do support affirmative action. However you put it, it really seems that – what we think about people, and who they really are, are often distant friends of one another. So, are we wrong about the world? Are we too cynical, particularly of men, in how many support women’s rights? And does our chronically online, deeply divisive relationship with social media, only make this problem worse? What do you think?