Saffas are being called the most ignorant in the world but here is the valuable lesson

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There is a study that was done which has ranked South Africans as the most ignorant people in the world, once we got over feeling insulted, we saw a learning moment.

Majority of South Africans that took part in the Ipsos survey were whole-heartedly pessimistic about the state of our rainbow nation. That became evident when the results were released and we got labelled the most ignorant country. Ouch!

So what was the Ipsos survey? Well, their goal was to see just how offbase each country was about their actual statistics. The Ipsos ‘Perils of Perception’ survey highlights how wrong the online public across 38 countries are on key global issues and features of the population in their country.

Their whole point was to focus on peoples perceptions of their country and show that it isn’t the reality. And that most countries are doing far better than what the population actually thinks. Basically, that it isn’t all bad.

That is basically the point of Good Things Guy, to shine a spotlight on the good and draw focus on all the people trying to do their very best to inspire in South Africa.

Ready to be mind blown by the statistics?

“Only 7% of people think the murder rate is lower in their country, but it is significantly down in most countries – and across all countries as a whole, it’s down 29%. For example, 85% in South Africa believe the murder rate is higher, when it’s actually down 29%.”

“All countries overestimate teenage births, some by a staggering amount… South Africa were similarly incorrect with an average guess of 44%, where the actual figure is 4.4%”

What is the real lesson here then?

Well, for a start, we as a nation need to be less doom and gloom. Yes, there are real issues here but they are not as life-altering as we are led to believe. Having an extra helping of hope or faith with your morning browse of mainstream media will do wonders for your day.

We need to remember that mainstream media relies on negative headlines to sell papers or generate clicks, that is why the average human sees about 10 negative headlines for every 1 positive one. As South Africans, we should actively seek out the good too, to create a healthy balance.