It’s a human tendency to be bored with stories of everyday incremental progress, and to focus on the negative — for which the 21st century provides much material. This has made cynics of most of us. In Factfulness, the author Hans Rosling suggests 10 instincts that prevent us from seeing real progress in the world. Let us dissect these instincts one by one in our two-part series.
The Fear Instinct
Now that we live in a world safer than ever, we’ve started fearing things that don’t exist. How much do you fear terrorist attacks? A lot – however, do you know that during the past decade and a half, no more than 50 people are killed by terrorists on a yearly basis? Just for comparison: on average, 5000 people die in traffic accidents in a year!
How to overcome it:
Don’t ever forget that frightening things get your attention because of evolutionary reasons; but if something is frightening, it doesn’t mean that it is risky: stop overestimating the risks of violence or contamination; remember this equation: risk = danger × exposure.