It is interesting that our perceptions can often be out of sync with reality.
In an international study by Ipsos MORI, the British public were the tenth most ignorant out of 14 countries (‘Britons clueless about immigration, religion and every other fact about UK society,’ The Huffington Post UK, 29 October 2014). The respondents tended to overestimate how common they think certain things were.
The responses by the UK public were as follows:
· Number of Muslims – 21%, actual figure 5%
· Professing Christians – 39%, actual figure 19%
· Over-65s – 37%, actual figure 17%
· Working-age people unemployed – 24%, actual figure 7%
· Number of voters in last election – 49%, actual figure 66% in 2010
· Children born in 2014 have life expectancy of – 83 years, actual figure 80 years
· Murder rate was falling – 49%, which was the right response
· 41% thought the level of immigration was at least twice the actual figure.
Mr Bobby Duffy, the Managing Director at Ipsos MORI’s Social Research Institute, explained: ‘These misconceptions present clear issues for informed public debate and policy-making. For example, public priorities may well be different if we had a clearer view of the scale of immigration and the real incidence of teenage mothers.
‘People also under-estimate ‘positive’ behaviours like voting, which may be important if people think it is more ‘normal’ not to vote than it actually is.’
Mr Duffy continued: ‘This is the first international study to look at these misperceptions across a range of issues and countries – and it shows the British are far from alone in being wrong. In fact we’re among the better informed countries – but there are still huge gaps between perception and reality on a number of key issues in Britain.’
Christians are to have a firm grip on a range of issues, being well-informed so that they can have an input into the relevant discussions (such as social justice, the purpose of life and the support of the family). The Bible states: ‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have’ (1 Peter 3: 15).
Ignorance is not bliss and we become rounder (and more accurate) people in knowing our facts.
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