The world is addicted to bad news, pessimism, pain and disaster; our airwaves forever filled with a cacophony of catastrophe and carnage. And so we seem to think everything is bad, everywhere, all of the time. But guess what, it isn’t. Put down your phone, turn off the TV, turn down the radio and look around. Read the data – we live in a time where extreme poverty, illiteracy, authoritarianism, and child deaths are at a historic low. Global education, vaccination rates and modern healthcare at an all time high. More people are more rich and more free than ever, and yes, we live in the most peaceful time in human history. People are probably upset to hear such good news, outraged even, or maybe confused, but the empirical truth cares not. The world is good. 💫 I’ll say it again: the world is good. And whilst certainly not perfect, and I make no suggestion that we should take our foot off the gas, or put down the placards and go home – but there is nothing wrong with looking around, taking a breath and allowing the thought to enter our heads that… things are not all bad. So what happens when global health professor Hans Rosling tested people on their views of the above? What do people actually know about these global trends? Well, he found we are worse than ignorant, worse than if we had just guessed the answers. That we are in fact systemically wrong about the facts, too negative and too pessimistic. Are you? Let’s see. 🍌 ~ You can take the Gapminder test here! Inspired by the Book Factualness by Hans Rosling https://tinyurl.com/4akb26az Images by Charles Deluvio, Nordwood Themes, Girl with Red Hat, Josh Batres Pugs, and Matthew Feener from Unsplash. #globalissues #hansrosling #factfulness #datascience

2022-12-15