USA TODAY International Edition
Survey highlights just how wrong we all are
Crime, violence, sex, climate change, the economy – we’re getting what we think we know about the world all wrong, according to a recent survey about global misperceptions.
The 2018 Perils of Misperception study published this month by Parisheadquartered Ipsos, a consultancy and market research firm, highlights various ways in which people across 37 countries are misinformed about key issues and features about their country.
Among the survey’s findings: People in every country surveyed significantly underestimate levels of sexual harassment. The largest gaps between perception and reality on this topic are in Denmark, the Netherlands, France and the United States.
For example, when respondents were asked to estimate how many out of every 100 women will say they have experienced a form of sexual harassment since the age of 15, in Denmark the average guess was 36. The actual figure is 80. In the United States, the average guess was 51. The actual number was 81.
Every country vastly overestimated the proportion of unemployed people looking for a job. The average guess across the study was 34 percent, a number 5 times greater than the actual figure of 7 percent.
The majority of countries hugely overestimate levels of immigration. The average guess across 37 countries is that 28 percent are immigrants when the actual figure is less than half that, at 12 percent.
South Africans were especially prone to overestimating the number of Muslims they believe to be living in their country. South Africans guessed that it was 26 out of 100 people. The actual figure is 2 out of every 100.