Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Troubler of Israel

Home
About

Home
Evangelical
Americans Think the World Is Way Worse Than It Actually Is

Americans Think the World Is Way Worse Than It Actually Is

Last updated on: July 17, 2017 at 11:01 am by G. Shane Morris

Americans Think the World Is Way Worse Than It Actually Is 2017-07-17T11:01:23-04:00 G. Shane Morris

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Rage against the TV For the most part, Americans form their political opinions without the slightest reference to reality. Our perceptions of the objective state of our country and world are wildly divorced from the facts. For example:

68% of Americans say the wealthy do not pay their fair share in taxes. Yet the top 1% of income earners in the United States pay nearly half of all income taxes. Essentially all income taxes are paid by the top 5% of income earners. Yet only 11% of Americans think the wealthy pay too much.

Only 12% of Americans think gun crimes have declined since the 1990s. 56% say such crimes have increased, while 26% say they’ve remained the same. In reality, half as many people die from gun crimes today as in the 1990s. This is part of an astonishing decline in violent crime overall since the 1970s.

According to Gallup, most Americans think at least 23 percent of the population is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. A third of Americans think every fourth person is LGBT. In reality, a generous estimate puts it at 3.8 percent of the population.

90% of Americans think global poverty is staying the same or getting worse. Only 6% of Americans think the world is, overall, becoming a better place. Yet deaths from violence and disease are at an all-time low, and just 10% of the world’s population are living in extreme poverty today, the lowest in recorded history. Almost all of this decline has occurred in the last fifty years.

Is it reasonable to expect Americans to vote rationally when their perceptions of reality are so skewed? On some of the most important policy issues, we are living in a fantasy world shaped by sensationalist media. Yet we’re expected to make informed decisions as a polity?

It’s a bleak picture, and contrary to many of my fellow conservatives, I don’t think it’s entirely due to malevolence on the part of mainstream media outlets. Some of it, of course, is politically-driven sensationalism. Journalists with an agenda often skew public perception not by reporting so-called “fake news,” but by selectively reporting real news. In many cases (especially when it comes to LGBT issues), progressive gatekeepers in the press over-represent favored constituents. Exposed to a lopsided sample of national and world events, the public will draw distorted conclusions. They will think about certain issues more than they should, and think about others less than they should. This strategy allows crooked reporters to maintain plausible deniability. But I don’t think it’s the main story.

Most of this unbalanced coverage and the resulting inaccuracy in Americans’ perceptions of the world seems to be the result of simple selection bias. Newsmen don’t get readers by reporting on planes that take off successfully or dogs that bite their owners. They get readers by reporting on planes that crash and owners who bite their dogs. It’s not a nefarious plot so much as a natural human tendency. The Internet age has only aggravated the problem by introducing a universe of clickbait and mindless algorithms that select and prioritize stories based on popularity, not reliability.

In short, we’re being lied to about the world we live in, but the number of actual liars is probably small. Rather, the way we consume news is weeding out positive, encouraging, or relieving headlines in favor of negative, discouraging, and outrageous ones. A culture of anger on both the political left and right fuels this cycle. And augmented by the rage-centric business model of Facebook and Twitter, torqued-off readers propel the stories that gall them to mega-viral status, while leaving BoredPanda to distribute the good feelings.

We’re responsible to fight this tendency, whether we’re on the writer’s or reader’s end of the news. An accurate understanding of the world is essential to all sound decision-making, and the evidence indicates that Americans, now more than ever, lack such an understanding.

Previous Post

July 7, 2017

Why Are Atheists Steamrolling Our Students?

Next Post

July 27, 2017 The Writers of 'Planet of the Apes' Went Bananas with Christian Imagery

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Animals Apologetics Archaeology Atheism Bible Books Church Creationism Culture of Death Debate Devotion Economics Ethics Free Will Gender Issues History Holidays Intelligent Design Islam Liberalism Life Advice Media Movies Music Nature Parenting Philosophy Politics Prayer Race Relationships Science Sex Stories Technology Terrorism The Point Theology Uncategorized Youth

Select a Month July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 November 2020 September 2020 May 2020 April 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "I do not know how to speak; I am too young"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Moses Samuel Jeremiah