Photo: Evan El-Amin – shutterstock.com
In a Survey asked the US Pew Research Center 24,525 people from 19 countries with advanced economies to assess the threat level caused by:
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climate change,
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infectious diseases,
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misinformation online,
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Cyber attacks from other countries and
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state of the world economy
Accordingly, respondents in most countries view climate change as the top threat, with 75 percent rating it as a major threat. This is closely followed by false information on the Internet, which is classified as a huge threat by an average of 70 percent.
What is striking is the strongly differing opinion of American citizens: they are most afraid of fake news and cyber attacks – seven in ten respondents share these concerns. Americans, on the other hand, are less afraid of climate change. Of the options offered, global warming is the least concern for US citizens.
Photo: Pew Research Center
the New York Times interprets the results of the survey to mean that Americans have suffered more from misinformation in recent years than other countries. This applies, for example, to the last American elections, but also to the corona pandemic. Only 26 percent of US respondents believe that disinformation on the Internet poses a negligible threat.
54 percent of US citizens, but 75 percent of Germans, see global climate change as a major threat. Even only 42 percent of Israelis classify the problem as serious, which is the lowest value of the countries surveyed.
According to the analysis, the problem of disinformation is also assessed differently depending on the party book. Democrats and the higher educated often see it as a major threat, while Republicans and lower educated see the problem as less of a concern. Of Trump voters, 66 percent said disinformation on the internet was a threat. 78 percent of Biden voters think so. (ss)
Photo: Pew Research Center