<
https://theconversation.com/think-society-is-in-decline-research-gives-us-some-reasons-to-be-cheerful-268834>
"Talk to a random member of the public and they’re likely to say that people’s
behaviour is getting worse. From brazen shoplifting, to listening to music out
loud on public transport, to violence against retail workers, there are plenty
of reasons we might feel bleak about other people.
This perception is backed up by research: a study published in June 2023 found
that people in over 60 countries believe that basic decency is declining. A
2025 poll of 9,600 Americans found that 46% believed that rudeness is overall
increasing, whereas only 9% found it was decreasing compared to pre-pandemic
levels.
But people’s perception can be inaccurate. In my research, I investigate how
accurate people’s perceptions about other people are, the implications of
inaccurate perceptions, and what happens when those misperceptions are
corrected.
And it’s clear that there are some misperceptions at play here. If we look at
people’s values, those abstract ideals that guide our behaviour, there are
reasons to be positive about society.
In a 2022 study of 32,000 people across 49 cultural groups, the values of
loyalty, honesty and helpfulness ranked highest, while power and wealth ranked
lowest. The results offer little support for claims of moral decline. An
interactive tool, developed by social scientist Maksim Rudnev using data from
the
European Social Survey, shows that the pattern remained consistent
between 2002-23 across over 30 European countries.
Further studies show people’s values are broadly similar across over 60
countries, education levels, religious denominations and gender (there are
exceptions of course). That is, there is substantial overlap between the
responses between both groups.
Even the values of 2,500 Democrats or Republicans in the USA in 2021-23, or of
1,500 Leave and Remain voters of the Brexit referendum in 2016-17, are
remarkably similar. This suggests an alternate narrative to perceptions of
countries being divided and polarised.
One limitation of these findings is that they are based on people’s
self-reports. This means these results can be inaccurate, for example because
people wanted to portray themselves positively. But what about people’s actual
behaviour?"
Via Kenny Chaffin.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
