Our Collective Illusion: The World Is Getting Worse

A recent study in Nature takes on the insidious problem of our cynicism. The authors title the paper and define the problem as “The Illusion of Moral Decline.” Despite tons of data showing that the world is getting better and better, we are not happier, especially in economically developed countries. The gap between the world’s progress and our perceptions is what the four studies in this paper examine.

First, the authors show that we perceive increasing moral decline as we age. Getting older makes us cynical. The authors study whether this is a generational phenomenon—is it just the boomers being boomers, or does the increased cynicism correlate with aging? They show the decline is consistent across generations as we age. I guess we should cut the Boomers some slack?

Second, the authors ask whether we should become more cynical as we age. Maybe the world is getting worse? Surprise: it isn’t. The catastrophizing is all in our heads.

Third, they look at what makes us cynical. They show we’re vaguely cynical—meaning we think the world is generally worse, but when asked about specific issues, we’re more positive. We have similar beliefs about people. We distrust strangers yet think the people close to us are as kind as ever. We frame these beliefs in consistent illusions about the past. Whatever year we were born, we think the world was better before then and got worse upon our birth. To summarize: we’re uneasy about some distant threats that began when we were born, even though that’s not true.

Fourth, the authors offer a theory with some evidence to support this theory. They describe a ‘biased exposure and memory’ (BEAM) mechanism through which our brains amplify negative messages. Amplifying negative messages makes sense if you’re trying to survive in a world with infrequent, potentially fatal dangers, say avoiding tigers in a jungle. But, it might undermine our ability to navigate the highly-stimulating and less dangerous world of the 21st century. Our technology amplifies, and multiplies negativity, and our brains are not designed to overcome so much pessimism.

So how do we overcome our illusions of moral decline? These authors, fortunately, offer us some clues. Since younger people are less cynical, maybe we need to hang out with them more and be inspired by their optimism.  That’s one of my favorite parts of my job as a professor.  The authors demonstrate that parents are less cynical than non-parents. For sure, having children is a personal decision, and maybe ‘life’s greatest joy’ has an important double meaning. The biggest lesson may be the need to better control what messages reach our brains: we need to seek out the positive signals that represent reality rather than wallowing in the negative information so pervasive in our modern world.

The bottom line is that the world isn’t as bad as we think. The authors note about our cynicism: “They were almost certainly mistaken.” We should learn how to be happier in a world that keeps getting better. Let’s be joyful that we are wrong about the world’s moral decline and try harder to hear positive messages about our reality.

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