Factfulness

“The Democrats and Republicans in the United States often claim that their opponents don’t know the facts. If they measured their own knowledge instead of pointing at each other, maybe everyone could become more humble. When we polled in the United States, only 5 percent picked the right answer. The other 95 percent, regardless of their voting preference, believed either that the extreme poverty rate had not changed over the last 20 years, or, worse, that it had actually doubled—which is literally the opposite of what has actually happened.” 

Rosling hits on several key points in this passage. First, he shows how the majority of people (as represented by the sample poll) are wrong about the world, literally choosing an answer that is the opposite of what data shows to be true. This observation tears down any assumption of intellectual difference due to political leaning. According to Rosling’s findings, there is no difference in knowledge or intelligence between Republicans and Democrats. They think and react in the same way, regardless of their political preference, thanks to their instincts. It also shows the futility of the blame instinct. Democrats blame Republicans for not understanding the issues, and Republicans blame Democrats for not being informed. In reality, both groups are equally ignorant.

“You might have seen this before. The line on the bottom looks longer than the line on the top. You know it isn’t, but even if you already know, even if you measure the lines yourself and confirm that they are the same, you keep seeing them as different lengths.

My glasses have a custom lens to correct for my personal sight problem. But when I look at this optical illusion, I still misinterpret what I see, just like everyone else. This is because illusions don’t happen in our eyes, they happen in our brains. They are systematic misinterpretations, unrelated to individual sight problems. Knowing that most people are deluded means you don’t need to be embarrassed. Instead you can be curious: how does the illusion work?”

This passage appears after Rosling displays an optical illusion of two lines that look like they are of different lengths but are, in fact, the same. The tendency for people to think the lines are different shows how an overdramatic worldview is a universal problem based on shared thought processes across the human race. It is not the product of a certain culture, country, race, gender, or other culture-made divide.