You're probably wrong about most social issues
gapminder.org
You're probably wrong about most social issues
1–6 of 6 posts
Re: You're probably wrong about most social issues
#2I love these sorts of projects that teach humility. This taught me that I had quite a few misconceptions that were off by an order of magnitude.
It's painful at first, but like an "audiophile" doing ABX testing, it helps in the long run.
Re: You're probably wrong about most social issues
#3I feel the title is a bit baity. Most people would take 'being wrong about a social issue' as being on the wrong side though most of these are just about the order of the effect.
Re: You're probably wrong about most social issues
#4"Around 18% of companies worldwide have female top managers."
I got this wrong, but it's rather interesting how most of the 89% of people that got this wrong were coming from Norway, Finland, Sweden. The countries where gender equality seems to be at its highest.
Re: You're probably wrong about most social issues
#5"Around 18% of companies worldwide have female top managers." I got this wrong, but it's rather interesting how most of the 89% of people that got this wrong were coming from Norway, Finland, Sweden. The countries where gender equality seems to be at its highest.
It's a Swedish company, so it may just be overrepresentation from Scandinavia.
Re: You're probably wrong about most social issues
#6The first question I saw is "What share of the population in high-income countries (like Germany and the USA) live in extreme poverty (with less than $2/day)?"
The answer, of course, is "basically none". It's also pointless. Plenty of people live in serious poverty, and many more live hand to mouth. Many have negative net worth and nothing in the bank. So focusing on that one statistic is misleading.
They acknowledge that: "Being poor in rich countries is a terrible experience that too many families have to deal with on a daily basis. They suffer from exclusion and lack opportunities that others around them have. The solution to their suffering is often within reach of the country they live in if only resources and opportunities were more fairly shared."
Which is great. So why focus on telling people they're wrong about the exact number rather than informing them from the get-go about what what "poor" really means?