The failure gap: People are systematically unaware of incredibly many things that go wrong around them.
Are people aware of the prevalence of problems and failures around them? We test whether people underestimate failures and problems more generally, and if so, when and why this occurs.
To assess breadth, participants estimated the frequency of a wide range of national, international, and individual failings. To assess depth, participants estimated five to twenty failure in a single domain (i.e., sports, education, medication).
People are systematically unaware of the mishaps, problems, and failures around them, a phenomenon we dub the failure gap. Across seven studies, People were systematically unaware of the rate at which things go wrong. For every three species that go extinct, the public knows about one; for every five weapons undetected by airport security, the public thinks one sneaks by.
People underestimated tens of thousands, and in some cases, millions, of failures. For example, they were unaware of millions of adults with poor educations, poor relationships, and declining mental health.
Why are people unaware of the problems around them? We brought observational, naturalistic, and experimental evidence that the failure gap was driven, at least in part, by the rate at which failure (vs. success) was discussed in shared information. Failure is underreported relative to success.
Encouragingly, closing the failure gap led lay citizens and global leaders to back needed change across issues as divisive and diverse as paid parental leave, criminal justice reform, and inclusive hiring practices in the workplace. Merely sharing the true rate at which things go wrong motivated change. Closing the failure gap reduced support for harsh punishment among educators in the field, reduced stigma among hiring managers, and promoted support for paid parental leave among global leaders.
