STEVEN PINKER: THE SURPRISING DECLINE IN VIOLENCE

Steven Pinker begins by providing evidence that violence was much greater in the past. He uses examples from the Bible as well as recalls the fact that in the Middle Ages crimes that are punishable by fines nowadays were punished by means of torture or execution.

http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/10-medieval-torture-devices.htm

He then asks the question, "Why are we so wrong?" He states one of the reasons is a cognitive illusion. There is a psychological phenomenon called the availability heuristic which explains that we are more likely to remember things that we can easily recall or hear more often. This ties into his ideas about technology being one of the reasons we are so wrong as well because we are bombarded with news everywhere we turn from every social media outlet available, which is something that didn't happen to the same extent in the past.

 http://www.zmescience.com/tech/ten-reasons-to-join-social-media-today/#!7Pvr3

Constantly hearing about wars and how people are dying all around the world through different media outlets causes us to remember these things more because they are lingering in our minds therefore leading to the availability heuristic. Pinker explains the 4 reasons why violence has declined and believes that we are more empathetic and more interconnected due to technology and therefore can get more from people, or as Robert Wright put it, "other people become more valuable alive than dead." He concluded with the idea that no matter people believe or what it is that we are doing, we are doing it right.