CFC Blog #145: A Student Mindset

Sometimes I wonder how people's mindsets would be affected if there was more positivity portrayed in the news and media. I recently deleted my Instagram account because the pages/accounts that I was following for inspiration (pertaining to global health and sustainability) were instead leaving me with feelings of despair and bitterness about the world, and an overall bad outlook. As I am studying sustainability and climate change, I know how important it is to focus on the statistics and to maintain more positive aspirations in order to move forward from here. With this kind of motivation, driven by hopefulness instead of anger or frustration, I believe individuals may be more motivated to put in a larger effort for people and the world. Lauren's blog breathed a sense of fresh hope into me about these ideas, and reminded me of the importance of operating in a positive, student mindset while ensuring I have the facts right. Thank you, Lauren!

- Amanda

A Student Mindset

The other week, I found myself saying “I am so terrified about the gap between what is in my head and what is true in reality.”

I just wrapped up my masters dissertation that focused on some research that has exploded in the last couple of years about how women’s mental health can really suffer due to sanitation concerns in developing countries. Even if they have access to a toilet that, by standards set by the WHO, are considered “improved” and therefore report as great progress towards achieving the global goals, women won’t use them if they don’t feel safe doing so. This doesn’t show up in the metrics.

So bad data doesn’t help this gap. And neither does the media! A graph I love shows that while terrorism accounts for 35% of what the NYT covers on American deaths, it only accounts for less than .01% of actual American deaths.

One of my favorite writers and thinkers, Hans Rosling, talked a lot about this too. He was known for giving a test of 12 questions to his lecture crowds - from students to UN staff - on the state of the world. Most groups would only get a couple questions right. His major takeaway? We all severely think the world is much worse off than it is! Poverty levels, rising temperatures, violence…the data proves us wrong. We aren’t maybe as doomed as we think…yet we repeatedly underestimate the progress we have made. The way human brains function is even more scary for policy than for personal issues.

I’ve been brainstorming ways to fight against the traps that can cause me to see the world in a distorted way, starting with intentionally having more of a student-mindset, questioning underlying assumptions, and reading more research from datasets than news articles these days. Turns out the world is really not as bad as we think it is sometimes.