If you think the world is in moral decline, there's now a scientific explanation for that. Not for the world being in moral decline — it isn't. But rather for your belief that it is.
Why it matters: "Our studies show that the perception of moral decline is pervasive, perdurable, unfounded and easily produced," findresearchers Adam Mastroianni and Daniel Gilbert.
"The United States faces many well-documented problems, from climate change and terrorism to racial injustice and economic inequality — and yet, most U.S. Americans believe their government should devote scarce resources to reversing an imaginary trend," they add.
The bottom line: It's normally worth trusting others, both inside and outside the government.
Our cognitive biases give us reason to believe that while doing so might have made sense in the years before we were born, doing so is dangerous or foolish today. What's really foolish, however, is letting those biases dictate our actions.
