Passage
Things are bad, and it feels like they are getting worse, right? War, violence, natural disasters, corruption. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; and we will soon run out of resources unless something drastic is done. That’s the picture most people see in the media and carry around in their heads.
I call it the overdramatic worldview. It’s stressful and misleading. In fact, the vast majority of the world’s population live somewhere in the middle of the income scale. Their girls go to school, their children get vaccinated. Perhaps not on every single measure, or every single year, but step by step, year by year, the world is improving. In the past two centuries, life expectancy has more than doubled. Although the world faces huge challenges, we have made tremendous progress.
The overdramatic worldview draws people to the most negative answers. It is not caused simply by out-of-date knowledge. My experience, over decades of lecturing and testing, has finally brought me to see that the overdramatic worldview comes from the very way our brains work. The brain is a product of millions of years of evolution, and we are hard-wired with instincts that helped our ancestors to survive in small groups of hunters and gatherers. We crave sugar and fat, which used to be life-saving sources of energy when food was scarce. But today these cravings make obesity one of the biggest global health problems. In the same way, we are interested in gossip and dramatic stories, which used to be the only source of news and useful information. This craving for drama causes misconceptions and helps create an overdramatic worldview.
We still need these dramatic instincts to give meaning to our world. If we sifted every input and analysed every decision rationally, a normal life would be impossible. Just as we should not cut out all sugar and fat, we should not ask a surgeon to remove the parts of our brain that deal with emotions. But we need to learn to control our drama intake.
Over the past 20 years, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty has almost halved. But in online polls, in most countries, fewer than 10% of people knew this. Our instinct to notice the bad more than the good is related to three things: the misremembering of the past; selective reporting by journalists and activists; and the feeling that as long as things are bad, it’s heartless to say they are getting better. For centuries, older people have romanticised their youths and insisted that things ain’t what they used to be. Well, that’s true. Most things used to be worse. This tendency to misremember is compounded by the never-ending negative news from across the world.
Stories about gradual improvements rarely make the front page even when they occur on a dramatic scale and affect millions of people. And thanks to increasing press freedom and improving technology, we hear about more disasters than ever before. This improved reporting is itself a sign of human progress, but it creates the impression of the exact opposite. Everything is not fine. We should still be very concerned. But it is ridiculous to look away from the progress that has been made. When people wrongly believe that nothing is improving, they may lose confidence in measures that actually work.
How can we help our brains to realise that things are getting better? Think of the world as a very sick premature baby in an incubator. After a week, she is improving, but she has to stay in the incubator because her health is still critical. Does it make sense to say that the infant’s situation is improving? Yes. Does it make sense to say it is bad? Yes, absolutely. Does saying “things are improving” imply that everything is fine, and we should all not worry? Not at all: it’s both bad and better. That is how we must think about the current state of the world.
Remember that the media and activists rely on drama to grab your attention; that negative stories are more dramatic than positive ones; and how simple it is to construct a story of crisis from a temporary dip pulled out of its context of a long-term improvement. When you hear about something terrible, calm yourself by asking: if there had been a positive improvement, would I have heard about that? Even if there had been hundreds of larger improvements, would I have heard?
This is “factfulness”: understanding as a source of mental peace. Like a healthy diet and regular exercise, it can and should become part of people’s daily lives. Start to practise it, and you will make better decisions, stay alert to real dangers and possibilities, and avoid being constantly stressed about the wrong things.
Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 17
Try yourself:Which one of the following best describes what the passage is trying to convey?
Explanation
Option 1 is incorrect. The passage does not merely diagnose the fallouts of the overdramatic worldview, but also offers a counter perspective to replace it with. Reject option 1.
Option 2 is incorrect. The passage does not offer a neutral ‘highlighting’ of the negative aspects of the overdramatic worldview – nor does he ‘compare’ it with factfulness. Reject option 2.
Option 3 is correct. The passage is aptly characterized as an argument. The writer first explains the problems with the overdramatic worldview and ends with an exhortation to have a fact-oriented approach, in order to have mental peace. Refer the last paragraph - 'This is “factfulness”: understanding as a source of mental peace. Like a healthy diet and regular exercise, it can and should become part of people’s daily lives. He argues for a point of view’. Retain option 3.
Option 4 is incorrect. It is not the intention of the passage to merely point to the dangers of the overdramatic worldview.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 17
Try yourself:The fact of increased press freedom and improved technology (paragraph 6) has been used to argue that:
Explanation
Option 1 is incorrect. It is not press freedom or improved technology which is said to lead to the sensationalizing of news by stressing on the negative aspects. Reject option 1.
Option 2 is incorrect. Improved technology and freedom in reporting is not said to lead to people evaluating the past as a better place. Reject option 2.
Option 3 is correct. Refer paragraph 6 – “And thanks to increasing press freedom and improving technology, we hear about more disasters than ever before. This improved reporting is itself a sign of human progress, but it creates the impression of the exact opposite.” He later suggests that one should ask – “Even if there had been hundreds of larger improvements, would I have heard?” Thus, the improved reporting, a positive change, is said to become a tool for spreading further dramatic perspectives. Retain option 3.
Option 4 is incorrect. The passage has not used the fact of improved reporting to argue that drama has been aggravated by technological improvements. Reject option 4.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 17
Try yourself:According to the passage, the overdramatic worldview is a consequence of all of the following EXCEPT:
Explanation
Option 1 is incorrect. In paragraph 3, the writer states that the negative worldview “is not caused simply by out-of-date knowledge”. Thus, lack of updated knowledge about improvements in the world is a cause for an overdramatic worldview. Reject option 1.
Option 2 is incorrect. In paragraph 3, a fascination for gossip is said to be the evolutionary instinct that has today led to the overdramatic worldview. Reject option 2.
Option 3 is incorrect. Negative journalism is said to aggravate the human instinct to remember the bad over the good. Reject option 3.
Option 4 is correct. While the passage mentions misremembering as a factor leading to the overdramatic worldview in paragraph 5 – “For centuries, older people have romanticised their youths and insisted that things ain’t what they used to be. Well, that’s true. Most things used to be worse. This tendency to misremember is compounded by the never-ending negative news from across the world.” – it does not state anywhere that misremembering is “encouraged by the fact that the present seems confusing and problematic”.
Thus the correct answer is option 4.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 17
Try yourself:Why does the writer say in the last paragraph, “stay alert to real dangers and possibilities”?
Explanation
Option 1 is incorrect. The risk perception of the individual becomes biased even for dramatic news that may not even affect the individual directly – i.e., the risk perception of a person is actually exaggerated rather than diminished. Reject option 1.
Option 2 is incorrect. This option also does not provide a coherent reason behind the advice to stay alert to real dangers. Reject option 2.
Option 3 is incorrect. A negative world view is not said to affect ‘mental health’. This is a dramatic and unjustified leap to make for conclusion. Reject option 3.
Option 4 is correct. The writer suggests factfulness as a countermeasure to the exaggerated and misleading negative worldview. Refer the last paragraph – “This is “factfulness”: understanding as a source of mental peace. ….Start to practise it, and you will make better decisions, stay alert to real dangers and possibilities, and avoid being constantly stressed about the wrong things.”Thus, the writer believes that the overdramatic world view compromises or vitiates the ability to process information correctly and leads to making one ‘constantly stressed about the wrong things’. However, the opposite of that worldview is not the answer. The answer lies in factfulness or in not being excessively negative about the world, but remaining alert to real dangers at the same time. Retain option 4.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 17
Try yourself:In paragraph 7, the author uses the example of the baby in the incubator to argue that:
Explanation
Option 1 is correct. Refer paragraph 7. The baby in the incubator is said to be recuperating but not yet out of danger. “Does it make sense to say that the infant’s situation is improving? Yes. Does it make sense to say it is bad? Yes, absolutely. Does saying “things are improving” imply that everything is fine, and we should all not worry? Not at all: it’s both bad and better. That is how we must think about the current state of the world.” The writer uses the analogy to make the broader point that media reports worsen the instinctive bias for negative news in people. Retain option 1.
Option 2 is incorrect. The analogy of the baby in the incubator is not related to the notion of facts not being attractive enough to people. Reject option 2.
Option 3 is incorrect. The analogy states the reverse of this – that even if things are terrible they are mending. Reject option 3.
Option 4 is incorrect. The example of the baby is not related to any image of reality derived from the negative bias. Rather, it is about how the undeniable negativity of a situation can hide a trend of improvement. Reject option 4.
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