The New York Times published an article on June 20th,
2023,
Entitled,
Your brain has tricked you into thinking that everything is worse.
I want to share a summary of that article with you.
In a recent study published in the journal Nature,
The authors argue that there is a cognitive bias in people's brains that leads to them to perceive a decline in moral values,
Even when it hasn't actually occurred.
The researchers collected over 574,
000 responses from 235 surveys conducted worldwide and found that people overwhelmingly believe that humans are less kind,
Honest,
Ethical and moral today than they were in the past.
This belief in moral decline has been consistent across countries and generations.
However,
The researchers also found strong evidence contradicting this belief.
They analysed surveys asking about the current state of morality and found that the participants' responses didn't show any meaningful change over time.
In fact,
Other studies have even demonstrated moral improvement in areas such as cooperation rates between strangers and the decline of heinous forms of immorality like genocide and child abuse.
The authors attribute this illusion of moral decline to two psychological phenomena – biased exposure and biased memory.
People tend to account and pay attention to negative information about others,
Which skews their perception of the world.
Additionally,
Negative information fades from memory faster than positive information,
Leading people to remember the past as better than it actually was.
This cognitive bias creates a susceptibility to Golden Age myths,
Where leaders promise to restore a better past.
The authors caution that as long as people believe in this illusion,
They are vulnerable to promises of autocratic leaders who claim to bring back an imaginary Golden Age.
The study highlights the importance of understanding and challenging these biases to form a more accurate understanding of the present and future.
So that's the end of the summary of the article,
But here are two additional key takeaways of my own.
Firstly,
Stop watching or listening to the news.
If you feel you must keep up with the news,
Read it rather than watch or listen.
The media are in the business of making money.
That is most easily done by keeping people in fear.
Fear encourages people to spend money for false feelings of safety.
It also enables people to be more easily controlled by leaders positioning themselves as saviours.
Secondly,
Focus on the quality of your own life,
Your own experiences,
Your own community.
The rest of the world is,
At best,
A second-hand experience.
More usually,
Each story has gone from reporters to editors and on to print via the machinery of the media moguls.
The story is far removed from personal experience.
With this in mind,
Practice gratitude.
There is a reason why so many teachers emphasise gratitude practices.
They keep you focused on your own experience.
With this in mind,
I have created a meditation called 108 Affirmations for Gratitude that is available here on InsideTimer.
Thank you for listening to this talk.
Enjoy.
Many blessings.
