I found out about an interesting project just now. The Gapminder Ignorance Project has set out to show that a large amount of people are ignorant about the world. These are the results of tests they did in the US in 2013. There were also similar tests done in Sweden and Germany. The results are pretty depressing.
This is pretty interesting. Maybe the world isn't quite as terrible of a place as I thought it was, which gives me hope for the future. On the other hand, there's still a long way to go, but maybe in my lifetime we'll get to a place that isn't quite as horrifying as humanity is capable of being at its worst.
Also shows that I need to do some research into what these statistics mean on a per-country basis.
The problem with these questions is that they don't really affect the average person's life in any way, shape or form. No one really cares about most of this. It's useless information to me.
I'm super surprised at number 8, everywhere you go in the media makes it seem that extreme poverty is increasing. But it's HALFED?
Well, a huge huge part of that statistic has to go to China's enormous economic jump from the eighties to the aughties, and lifting of hundreds of millions of its people above the line.
I'm a country bumpkin according to this test. Hmmm.
After looking over the project results for the 3 countries linked in the OP, I have to wonder what's going on here and what exactly the Ignorance Project is trying to show. This is their aim, copied from the US survey preface:
"The aim with these surveys is to understand how pronounced and how frequent the ignorance about major global development trends is among the public in different countries, especially regarding the order of magnitude and speed of change of the most important aspects of the life conditions of the world population."
The conclusion of the survey, as I read it, is that people (for the most part) think that the world is worse off than it actually is. In a straightforward sense, then, we are ignorant of the state of the world. But ignorance carries with it a negative connotation - one which I'm not sure is warranted in this case.
For the most part, I wouldn't characterise this as the public being ignorant. Instead, I think we're misinformed. Most of our media sources focus on the sad state of the world and those of us in affluent countries are constantly bombarded by charities to give to famine relief, women's education, birth control efforts -- many of the things that are being asked on this survey.
I'm not suggesting that these aren't still things that need our support. I'm just suggesting that our ignorance isn't really our fault. We are getting information pretty consistently that the world is in such-and-such a state. Our impressions of the world are reflected in the answers to these questions. And these impressions are shaped by our own environment - as explained above.
So I guess I have 2 questions:
1) Where does the epistemic blame lie? Is the term 'ignorance' appropriate here, or is it (as I've suggested) more a case of misinformation? If the latter is correct, then whom should we hold responsible for our misunderstanding of the state of the world? The media? Charitable organisations?
2) Is our ignorance in this respect a better state of affairs than most people being well-informed? In other words, if we fully understand the state of the world, would we stop giving as much to charitable organisations or donating our time to help these particular causes?
I would have gotten most of these since they were multiple choice, but if they were short answer I would have gotten all of them wrong XD
I'm super surprised at number 8, everywhere you go in the media makes it seem that extreme poverty is increasing. But it's HALFED?
Yes. Yes relly? Halfed?
I'm not suggesting that these aren't still things that need our support. I'm just suggesting that our ignorance isn't really our fault. We are getting information pretty consistently that the world is in such-and-such a state. Our impressions of the world are reflected in the answers to these questions. And these impressions are shaped by our own environment - as explained above.
