Factfulness book report!!!!!!!!!!

If you are stuck at home during a time of fear and confusion, Hans Rosling's masterpiece, Factfulness, may be the remedy to healing your anxieties. Written by Swedish public speaker, Hans Rosling, with his son and daughter-in-law, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling, the book discusses ten instincts that many of us unknowingly follow that creates misconceptions about the world. Especially now during the coronavirus, many of us are at home watching the news, reading statistics, and watching supermarket shelves become dry. The proud news anchors and high numbers are all a façade to instill fear among the masses. The best way to overcome this state of panic is to conduct research and observe facts.  By understanding who is susceptible to the virus and following safety methods, we can instill understanding among people instead of fear and panic. Here are some Instincts that we follow that which distort our truth of the world.

The Negativity Instinct, which makes us take more notice of the bad than the good. Sometimes we may even do this without thinking. We get so stuck on the negative factors in our lives that we forget to look at the good ones. When we watch the news, we may be filled with negative ideas such as people dying, hunger, climate change, annoying politicians. We may begin to feel that things are getting worse when things are getting better. Rosling states “To control the negativity instinct, expect bad news.” We must look at the good and the bad and find balance.

Just like the negativity instinct, The Fear Instinct makes the world appear more frightening than it is. “There’s no room for facts when our minds are occupied by fear,” Rosling states. This is caused by what the media shows us or what may hear from other people. It’s important to make sure to keep your calm before making any decisions and not make decisions out of fear. As humans, we tend to pay more attention to things that scare us which can lead to worrying or anxiety. When you feel triggered it is important to step away from the situation to calm down review your feelings from a distance before proceeding. Rosling quotes in this chapter “Of all our dramatic instincts, it seems to be the fear instinct that most strongly influences what information gets selected by news producers and presented to us consumers.” 

Finally, another instinct I found quite fascinating was the generalization instinct. We tend to create relationships between people, places, or things that may not correlate at all. The best way to avoid grouping things incorrectly it by questioning your categories.  It is important to look at the bigger picture by finding differences and similarities within and across groups. Rosling also insists to avoid the majority. It Is important to get specific when speaking about the “Majority”. Rosling quotes “Categories are necessary for us to function. They give structure to our thoughts. Imagine if we saw every item and every scenario as truly unique—we would not even have a language to describe the world around us. The necessary and useful instinct to generalize, like all the other instincts in this book, can also distort our worldview.”

In conclusion, it may be hard to see the truth of the world behind rose-tinted glasses. Every day we are bombarded by bad news, crime, chaos throughout our social media, and news outlets. It is important to take a step back and think slowly and critically about everything we see and hear. Hopefully, after this read, you too will find out that the world isn’t such a bad place after all.