ignorance on data

September 8, 2018 · 2 min read · general, psychology

Ever since I read Daniel Kahneman’s ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ roughly about a year ago. I have had this penchant for all things that are the folly of the mind. Also, Kahneman’s book was what showed how important Data is, and how they can play tricks on your mind.

Those were interesting and I took it up as a habit of reading Psychology papers and Keeping myself aware of any new data research. It has made a huge impact on how I view everything.

In the process, I have found some surprisingly great sources for that. Websites like, ourworldindata.org, gapminder.org, data.gov.in, are all great. It used to surprise me that people unaware of even the basic facts. But, I’d gotten used to it.

Recently my friend and I were watching a video by the YouTube channel ‘In a Nutshell’ I love their content and somewhere in this video he mentions that “One in every six deaths were due to cancer”. I’d read it somewhere before and it didn’t have much impact on me. But, my friend was outraged, he was completely confident it was impossible. and we had this hour and a half long conversation of why ‘In a Nutshell’ are reliable. He looked completely unfazed.

He was very confident that they were trying to be clickbaity. What was more surprising was his argument on why he thought it was impossible. To prove his argument he asked me this, “How many people do you know, have died of cancer?” I’d known of two people. He apparently had never known any. Which is why he obstinately believed that cancer is far less than the given.

Even after I showed the statistical record by ourworldindata in this post. He completely denied to acknowledge it. and piled up questions like, “how can they know?”, “They couldn’t possibly have calculated all deaths.”, “It’s probably fake.”

I had read about how people can fall into fallacies and how it might affect them. When I think of people fallen to fallacies, I think of flat-earth theorists and non-vaccinators. I would never have guessed that it can be found everywhere. I’ve often had judgemental errors. But, I quickly correct them.

Realising that there are several more well educated people completely oblivious to the true happenings of the world, was hurtful. And even more paining was the fact that they’re unable see beyond their own mind.