We see the news about poverty, gender inequality, poor/wealth, and so on. To what extent do you think you understand the world?
I am going to introduce a book, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World-and Why Things Are Better Than You Think.
I would like people to read this book and tell about this to people around you, because we living in the relatively wealthy world are IGNORANT in terms of the world! You might say I am not, but I would say YOU ARE!!
Factfulness makes us find how outdated the perception about the world that we learned at school is, detects where it comes from, and leads us to the right way of seeing the world, I mean how to obtain fact-based world view.
Basic 13 Questions about the world
I am giving you 13 questions about the world. Test yourself!
- In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?
A: 20 percent B: 40 percent C: 60 percent - Where does the majority of the world population live?
A: Low-income countries B: Middle-income countries C: High-income countries - In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has …
A: almost doubled B: remained more or less the same C: almost halved - What is the life expectancy of the world today?
A: 50 years B: 60 years C: 70 years - There are 2 billion children in the world today, aged 0 to 15 years old. How many children will there be in the year 2100, according to the United Nations?
A: 4 billion B: 3 billion C: 2 billion - The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people. What is the main reason?
A: There will be more children (age below 15)
B: There will be more adults (age 15 to 74)
C: There will be more very old people (age 75 and older) - How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last hundred years?
A: More than doubled B: Remained about the same C: Decreased to less than half
- There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today. Which map shows best where they live? (Each figure represents 1 billion people.)
A: Africa 1: Europe 1: Asia 4: America 1
B: Africa 2: Europe 1: Asia 3: America 1
C: Africa 1: Europe 1: Asia 3: America 2
- How many of the world’s 1-year-old children today have been vaccinated against some disease?
A: 20 percent B: 50 percent C: 80 percent - Worldwide, 30-year-old men have spent 10 years in school, on average. How many years have women of the same age spent in school?
A: 9 years B: 6 years C: 3 years - In 1996, tigers, giant pandas, and black rhinos were all listed as endangered. How many of these three species are more critically endangered today?
A: Two of them B: One of them C: None of them - How many people in the world have some access to electricity?
A: 20 percent B: 50 percent C: 80 percent - Global climate experts believe that, over the next 100 years, the average temperature will …
A: get warmer B: remain the same C: get colder
Reference: Rosling, Hans. Factfulness (pp. 3-5). Flatiron Books. Kindle Edition.
Answer and Reflection
More than 12,000 people including professionals who attend international forum and journalists took this test. The average score was 2 out of 12 (the last question is excluded, because most people chose the right answer! Yay us!).
I am not providing all the answers, since again I would like you to read this book!
Here is the answers that many people couldn’t answer correctly.
Q. 1…. Answer is C: 60 percent.
Q. 3…. Answer is C: almost halved.
Q. 7… Answer is C: Decreased to less than half.
Q. 9… Answer is C: 80 percent.
Q. 12… C: 80 percent.
How was it? I emphasize that the average score is 2 out of the first 12!!
Actually, chimps took this test as well. Of course, they don’t know what’s going on in this world, so they chose the answer RANDOMLY. Their average score was 4 out of the first 12! We are beaten by chimps. Lol
It doesn’t matter how highly educated you are. Just our world view is outdated. We should update it.
Developing and Developed Countries No longer Exist.
People tend to divide the world into DEVELOPING and DEVELOPED. However, this perception is in 1970s… There is no longer the division in the current world!
The world should be broken down into 4 Levels based on income levels.
Level 1: Earning $1-less than $2 per day. (1 billion in the world population)
Level 2: Earning $2-less than $8 per day. (3 billion in the world population)
Level 3: Earning $8-less than $32 per day. (2 billion in the world population)
Level 4: Earning more than $32 per day. (1 billion in the world population)
Obviously, most of the world population live in Level 3 and 4.
In Level 2, although the life is not stable, people afford a bicycle to fetch water or sandals for children. Moreover they can save money to buy a gas stove, and therefore children don’t have to collect woods. Instead, kids can go to school.
In level 3, the quality of life improved significantly. People afford a motorbike and a refrigerator. They install a tap in their house, so they can drink water whenever they want. Besides, they can access stable electricity.
What do you think? Isn’t it WOW?
10 Instincts
We should know we easily fall to misunderstanding. To see the world based on data and to understand the world correctly, we should control 10 instincts that lead us to misconceptions of the world.
- The Gap Instinct
- The Negative Instinct
- The Straight Line Instinct
- The Fear Instinct
- The Size Instinct
- The Generalization Instinct
- The Destiny Instinct
- The Single Perspective Instinct
- The Blame Instinct
- The Urgency Instinct
The Gap Instinct is that I was talking above. In this article, I will describe some of them.
The Straight Line Instinct
This instinct is that people tend to predict a number to continue to go up or down, when looking at a graph. However, in reality, the graph could irregularly change.
Regarding the world population, it is true that the number has been increasing. In fact, the UN predicts the world population will increase by another 4 billion by 2100. On the other hand, looking at the fertility rate, the figure is decreasing. In 2015 the rate was below 2.5, though per woman had around 6 babies in 1800.
So, where will the 4 billion come from? Read the book!
This is not in this book, but the UN announced the replacement-level fertility is 2.1 children per woman, at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next without migration.
Look at this map! Many countries don’t reach 2.1!!
Does it scare you?
In this book, the author says that the young and the elderly population will come to be well-balanced in the future. It’s just not well-balanced right now.
That women in a country have less children means the sex education prevailed, having equal conversation between husbands and wives (gender equality), and more women have more working opportunities. In short, less babies in a countries means the development of the country.
This is important. People in Level 2 and 3 have already achieved these things. Some people associate the fertility rate with religion or culture, but it’s wrong! The thing we should pay attention is INCOME LEVEL!
The Generalization Instinct
This is people tend to generalize countries, people, culture, and religion.
Japan, South Korea, most European countries, and north American countries are in Level 4. We shouldn’t expect countries in other levels to be developed as our countries. We shouldn’t judge the speed of their development nor looking them down.
Rather, we should respectfully see why they do like that. They could be smarter than us!
The author says that the most challenging thing for people in Level 4 to gain the fact-based worldview is to stop seeing the world based of our standard of living. We are standing on the top of the income hierarchy. When looking down, we cannot see the differences between countries in Level 1, 2, and 3. For us, those countries are just equally POOR.
But, it is not true. Again, most countries in the world are in Level 2 and 3, and they have been developing.
At Last
Factfulness points out our unconscious tendencies and correct our wrong world view by showing data from the UN and others. As you know from the 4 answers that I gave, the world has been improved rather than gotten worse.
Most of the issues in the world are not caused by culture or religion, but by INCOME LEVEL!
We should update our knowledge about the world and teach children fact-based world view.
The link is Japanese yen but I think you can buy through it.
