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Do we live in a society in decline? Various investigations give us some reasons to be optimistic.
There are many reasons to feel pessimistic about others.
This perception is supported by research: a study in Nature in 2023 concluded that people in more than 60 countries believe that basic decency is declining.
A 2025 survey of 9,600 Americans revealed that 46% believed that lack of education is, overall, increasing, while only 9% believed that it was decreasing compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Mass People’s perception can be inaccurate. In new research, shared by Paul Hanelfrom the University of Essex (United Kingdom), in an article in , analyzes how accurate people’s perceptions of others are, the implications of incorrect perceptions and what happens when these incorrect perceptions are corrected.
And of course there are some wrong perceptions here. If we look at people’s values, those abstract ideals that guide our behavior, there are reasons to be positive about society.
In another 2022 with 32,000 people from 49 cultural groups, the values of lfairness, honesty and helpfulness came firstwhile power and wealth were in last place. The results offer little support for claims of moral decline.
An interactive tool, developed by social scientist Maxim Rudnev based on data from the European Social Survey, it shows that the pattern remained consistent between 2002 and 2023 in more than 30 European countries.
Other studies show that people’s values are generally similar across more than 60 countries, education levels, religious denominations and genders (there are exceptions, of course). In other words, there is substantial overlap between the responses of both groups.
Even the figures for 2,500 Democrats or Republicans in the US in 2021-23, or 1,500 Leave and Remain voters in the Brexit referendum in 2016-17, are remarkably similar. This suggests an alternative narrative to perceptions of divided and polarized countries.
A limitation of these results is the fact that they are based on people’s self-reports. This means that the results may be inaccurate, for example because people wanted to present themselves in a positive light. But what about people’s actual behavior?
Good citizens. There is hope!
Several studies suggest that the most people actually behave in a moral manner.
For example, when researchers analyzed real public conflicts recorded by surveillance cameras, they found that, in nine out of ten conflicts, a passerby intervened (in cases where passers-by were present).
These findings, from 2020, were similar in the Netherlands, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
People intervene in knife attacks or terrorist attacks, even when they put themselves in danger. Although these cases are rare, they demonstrate that many people are willing to help even in extreme circumstances.
In less dramatic situations, we can also observe that people are considerate of others.
For example, one from 2019 concluded that in 38 of the 40 countries analyzed, Lost wallets were, on average, more likely to be returned if they contained some money than if they contained no money, and even more likely to be returned when they contained a reasonable amount of money.
This is probably due to the fact that whoever found them recognized that the loss would be more damaging to the wallet owner.
In another, in 2023, 200 people from seven countries received 10,000 US dollars, with practically no conditions attached. The participants spent more than $4,700 on other people and donated $1,700 to charity.
But what about changes over time? It may be that people 50 or 100 years ago behaved more morally. There are not many studies that systematically track changes in behavior over time, but one, carried out between 1956 and 2017, concluded that Americans became slightly more cooperative between the 1950s and 2010s when interacting with strangers.
Why do misperceptions increase?
Why do so many people continue to believe that society is in moral decline?
From then on, the Social media tends to focus on negative events.
As negative news is also more likely to be shared on social media. For example, numerous studies have observed that when disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes) occur, many media outlets report panic and cruelty, despite people typically cooperating and supporting each other.
Furthermore, the people with more extreme political views — both left and right — are more likely to publish content online. In other words, what we see on social media is in no way representative of the population.
Of course, none of this denies that a minority of people can cause serious harm, or that some aspects of public life may be getting worse.
Paul Hanel writes that people who mistakenly believe that others care more about selfish values and less about compassionate values are, on average, less likely to volunteer or vote. This isn’t surprising: why invest your time in people you think would never return the favor?
Numerous experiments have shown that showing people that others share, on average, similar values and beliefs to theirs can make them more confident and more hopeful about the future.
Talking to other people, whether friends, casual acquaintances or strangers, can make us realize that others are mostly friendly, and it can also make us feel better.
Volunteering, joining local groups or participating in neighborhood events can be a good idea: helping others makes us feel better. Finally, read positive news or focus on the kindness of others It can also improve our outlook.
The evidence suggests that moral decline is not happening, even if there are examples of some bad behavior on the rise. If we all stopped talking to other people because we assume they want to hurt us, stopped going the extra mile for others, and so on, there would be a risk of becoming more self-centered and decline would eventually occur. Fortunately, as a society, we can influence our own destiny.
