Factfulness Book Report

Factfulness

Gianna Besser

Factfulness by Hans Rosling is made up of ten instincts that he believes distorts our perspective of the world and changes the way we should actually see things. Rosling thinks people don't see enough beauty in the world, and their opinions are more frightening, violent, and hopeless than what it actually is. In each chapter he explains how each instinct changes our point of view and helps us understand the truth of what is happening in the world today. 

One of my favorite chapters was Chapter Two: The Negativity Instinct 

In this chapter Hans explained that people see more of the bad rather than the good. We can relate to this chapter during the quarantine. The news is mostly portraying the bad that is happening and all the new cases that are popping up, but they don't show us enough of the cases that have been cured. 

 

Another one of my favorite chapters was Chapter 4: The Fear Instinct

Hans says that we pay more attention to frightening things. To grab someone's attention, especially over the media, people emphasize what others think are frightening. Hans says if something is frightening to you, or something you think is putting you at risk. It is always beneficial to think before you make any actions and wait until the panic has subsided. 

The last chapter I enjoyed was Chapter 8: The Blame Instinct

In this chapter Hans explains to us that when something bad goes wrong we usually find a scapegoat to blame it on. Whether it be a person, or a an object people tend to put the blame on something rather than using energy to think of the cause of the problem and accepting the fact something bad happened

In conclusion, Factfulness opened my eyes to see how the media is affecting how we see the world and how we act. There are a lot of great things to realize and not everything is as bad as it seems. The book started off slow, and during some chapters it described stuff that I wasn't interested about, but overall it helped me understand the truth, and to not always believe what I hear.