These days, virality seems privileged over quality in the distribution of news with truth and fact losing currency in decision making and democratic choices. Assertions which “feel right” but have no basis in fact seem to be accepted as valid on the grounds that they challenge elites and vested interests. Algorithms that sort us into groups of like-minded individuals create echo chambers that amplify our views, leave us uninformed of opposing arguments, and polarise our societies. Those algorithms are not a design flaw. They are the heart of why social media work.
In this context, what can countries do to foster trust, as a fundamental prerequisite for social and economic well-being, for enhancing social cohesion and strengthening resilience, and for maintaining security and order in our societies? OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) shows that education strengthens the cognitive and analytical capacities needed to develop, maintain, and (perhaps) restore trust in both close relationships as well as in anonymous others. It does so both directly, through building and reinforcing literacy and numeracy in individuals, and indirectly, through facilitating habits and reinforcing behaviours such as reading and writing at home and at work. Education and trust are thus fundamentally intertwined and dependent on each other.
4. Increase in time spent on line outside school on a typical school day
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Chile39
Sweden56
Uruguay33
CostaRica31
Spain44
Italy40
Australia52
Estonia50
NewZealand51
Hungary43
Russia42
Netherlands48
Denmark55
SlovakRepublic40
CzechRepublic43
Austria42
Latvia46
Singapore45
Belgium44
Poland46
Iceland51
OECDaverage-2743
Ireland48
Croatia40
Portugal42
Finland48
Israel34
Macao(China)45
Switzerland40
Greece41
HongKong(China)39
Mexico30
Slovenia37
Japan31
Korea20
Minutes per day
2015 2012
Figure III.13.3
Percentage of High Internet Users (spending 2 to 6 hours on line per day), during weekdays
5. • Virality seems privileged over quality
in the distribution of news
• Truth and fact are losing currency in decision making
and democratic choices
• Assertions which “feel right” but have no basis in fact
seem to be accepted as valid on the grounds that
they challenge elites and vested interests
The post-truth world where reality becomes fungible
• A study by Stanford University
– Over 80% of middle-schoolers couldn’t distinguish
between an ad labelled “sponsored content” and a real
news story on a website.
– Less that 20% of high-schoolers questioned the use of a
photo of deformed daisies in an article about toxic
conditions near a nuclear plant in Japan, despite the
absence of a source/location; in fact, nearly 40% argued
the photo enhanced the article’s reliability.
6. • Algorithms that sort us into groups of like-minded
individuals create echo chambers that amplify our
views, leave us uninformed of opposing arguments,
and polarise our societies
• Those algorithms are not a design flaw, they are the
heart of why social media work
Scarcity of attention and abundance of information
8. 100 80 60 40 20 0 20 40
Turkey
Greece
Chile
Lithuania
Israel
United States
Poland
Russian Federation
Ireland
Slovak Republic
England (UK)
Northern Ireland (UK)
Japan
OECD average
Slovenia
Estonia
Denmark
Austria
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
Germany
Czech Republic
Norway
Flanders (Belgium)
Netherlands
Sweden
Finland
Korea
Singapore
Level 2 Level 3 Level 2 Level 3
Skills to navigate the digital world – digital problem-solving skills
Young adults (16-24 year-olds) Older adults (55-65 year-olds)
9. Comparing skills of computers and adults
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Level 1 and Below Level 2 Level 3 Level 4-5
Literacy Proficiency in OECD Countries (PIAAC)
Near-term
computer
capabilities
10. Interpersonal Trust
• Interpersonal trust corresponds to an “expectation that other members of
the community will behave in a cooperative and honest way”
• The social and economic importance of interpersonal trust is widely
acknowledged. It is a associated with:
• Collective problems solving
• Economic development and functioning democratic institutions
• Lower rates of criminality and juvenile delinquency
• The literature indicates that greater diversity is associated with lower trust
• What role for education systems?
11. Generalised trust across countries
0 2 4 6
Italy
Greece
Slovak Republic
Chile
Czech Republic
France
Slovenia
Estonia
Poland
Ireland
Germany
Austria
Lithuania
South Korea
United Kingdom
United States
Spain
Australia
Singapore
Israel
Belgium
Canada
New Zealand
Netherlands
Japan
Norway
Finland
Sweden
Denmark
few people trust completely
other take advantage
12. Trust, Education and Cognitive Abilities
• Education one of the strongest correlates of interpersonal trust
– but lack of clarity on what mechanisms are responsible for education gradients in interpersonal trust
• Cognitive mechanism
– To trust others you need to be smart (and not too trustful). Trusting anonymous others requires
individuals to feel confident about being able to evaluate the quality of particular interactions with
others and to adapt behaviour according to environmental stimuli (Hooge et al., 2012).
• Societal stratification mechanism
– Trust is a privilege of the ‘winners in society’(Newton 1997). Those who have a higher socio-
economic status will find it easier to express trust in the social arrangements that have provided
them with this high status. Better educated individuals are more likely to be employed, to earn
higher wages, to be in better health, to live in neighbourhoods with low levels of crime.
• Direct mechanism
– Socialisation processes
13. The role of education:
is what you learn or who you become that matters?
14. Increased likelihood of positive outcomes
among adults with higher literacy skills (age 16-65)
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Being Employed High wages Good to excellent
health
Participation in
volunteer activities
High levels of
political efficacy
High levels of trust
(scoring at Level 4/5 on PIAAC compared with those scoring at Level 1 or below)
Odds ratio
15. Some findings
• At the individual level, education is positively associated with
generalised trust both directly and indirectly through social
sorting and cognitive mechanisms
• The association between education and generalised trust, as
well as the relative importance of direct and indirect
mechanisms differ across countries
16. Some findings
• The relationship that varies the most is the relationship between
literacy and trust
• Diversity vs. uncertainty:
– The association between literacy and generalised trust is stronger in countries
that are characterised by greater birthplace diversity.
– The association between literacy and generalised trust is weaker in countries
characterised by greater income inequality
• Maintaining trust in the presence of increased social diversity arising
from international requires significant investments in equipping all
individuals with high levels of information processing skills
17. • The first place where children encounter the diversity of society
• Provide students with opportunities to learn about global
developments that affect the world and their own lives
• Teach students to develop a fact-based and critical worldview
• Equip students with an appreciation of other cultures and an
awareness of their own cultural identities
• Engage students in experiences that facilitate international and
intercultural relations
• Promote the value of diversity, which in turn encourages
sensitivity, respect and appreciation
A role for schools in building bridging social capital
18. Global competence (PISA)
Effectively combining knowledge
and critical reasoning in order to
establish an informed opinion on a
global or intercultural issue.
Globally competent students can draw on
and combine the disciplinary knowledge and
modes of thinking acquired in schools to ask
questions, analyse data and arguments,
explain phenomena, and develop a position
concerning a local, global or cultural issue
e.g. history course about industrialisation in
the developing world
19. Global competence (PISA)
Willingness and capability to
understand global issues, and
others’ perspectives and behaviours
from multiple points of view.
Recognising that perspectives and
behaviours – including one’s own –
are inherently shaped by various
influences and concepts of reality
Globally competent students can
retain their cultural identity but are
simultaneously aware of the cultural
values and beliefs of people around
them, they examine the origins and
implications of others’ and their own
assumptions
e.g. student noticing culturally-related behaviour
20. Global competence (PISA)
Understanding the cultural norms
of different contexts and adapting
behaviour and communication
accordingly
The capacity to interact with others in
ways that are open (i.e. with sensitivity
and engagement), appropriate (i.e.
respectful) and effective.
Globally competent students create
opportunities to take informed, reflective
action and have their voices heard
21. Global competence (PISA)
Readiness to respond to a given
local, global or intercultural issue.
Being ready and willing to take
informed, reflective action and an
engagement to improve living
conditions in one’s own
communities and beyond.
23. Global competence (PISA)
Knowledge of global issues and
intercultural issues
Content domains:
• Culture and intercultural relations
(as students engage in learning about other cultures
they recognise multiple, complex identities and
avoid categorising people through single markers)
• Socio-economic development and
interdependence
• Environmental sustainability
• Global institutions, conflicts and
human rights
24. Global competence (PISA)
Global competence builds on specific
cognitive and socio-emotional skills,
including
• Reasoning with information
• Communication in intercultural
contexts
• Perspective-taking (the cognitive and social
skills to understand how other people think and feel)
• Conflict resolution
• Adaptability
25. Global competence (PISA)
The mind-set that students adopt
towards a person, a group, an
institution, an issue, a behaviour or a
symbol
Openness towards people
from other cultural backgrounds
Respect for cultural differences
Global-mindedness
26. Global competence (PISA)
Values go beyond attitudes as they
transcend specific objects or
situations
People use them consciously and
unconsciously as reference for
judgements
• Human dignity
• Cultural diversity
27. • 90% of employers in 9 countries surveyed reported they value intercultural skills,
and 47% screen for intercultural skills
• More than two thirds of employers report that their employees engage frequently
with colleagues outside of their country, and over half say that their employees
engage frequently with partners and clients outside of their country.
• By far the most highly valued skill is “demonstrating respect for others”, followed
by “working effectively in diverse teams”. These skills outranked having
“qualifications related to the job” and “expertise in the field”.
• More than one quarter of employers globally see the education provision in their
country as inadequate in producing graduates that meet the intercultural skills
needs of their organisation
• Source: British Council (2013) “Culture at work: The value of intercultural skills in the workplace”
Global competence
28. Find out more about our work at www.oecd.org/pisa
– All publications
– The complete micro-level database
Email: Andreas.Schleicher@OECD.org
Twitter: SchleicherOECD
Wechat: AndreasSchleicher
Thank you
Notes de l'éditeur
Interpersonal trust corresponds to an “indiscriminate belief in the general benevolence of one’s fellow citizen” (Sturgis et al., 2010) and the “expectation that other members of the community will behave in a cooperative and honest way” (Fukuyama, 1995). To trust others is to believe that strangers will not knowingly hurt us and will consider our well-being when acting (Barber, 1983; Hardin, 2006).
The social and economic importance of interpersonal trust is widely acknowledged. In societies with high levels of interpersonal trust individuals share new ideas and exchange information, efficiently interacting with each other to overcome collective action problems (Fukuyama, 1995; Ostrom, 1990; Putnam, 1993, Tavits, 2006). Empirical work confirms that interpersonal trust is an important social and economic resource: it is associated with economic development and functioning democratic institutions (Knack and Keefer, 1997; Putnam, 1993; Inglehart, 1997). Moreover, interpersonal trust is positively associated with health status and behaviours (Islam et al. 2006; De Silva et al., 2005), lower rates of criminality and juvenile delinquency (Halpern, 2001; Sampson, Raudenbush & Earls, 1997).
The first mechanism identified as responsible for the positive observed association between education and interpersonal trust is cognitive ability (Hooge et al., 2012). Better educated individuals tend to have better cognitive abilities because education promotes the acquisition of cognitive abilities and intelligence is an asset in academic settings, and helps individuals to thrive in school [ref].
Trusting anonymous others requires individuals to feel confident about being able to evaluate the quality of particular interactions with others and to adapt behaviour according to environmental stimuli. It is possible for individuals to trust others in general only if they know that they possess skills that will enable them to understand whether they can trust a particular other in a particular encounter at particular time (Yamagishi, 2001; Yamagishi, Kikuchi, & Kosugi, 1999; Sturgis et al., 2010). A second mechanism identified in the literature relates to social stratification and the fact that better educated individuals are more likely to be employed, to earn higher wages, to be in better health, to live in neighbourhoods with low levels of crime (reference). The favourable life outcomes that the better educated enjoy make it easier for them to express trust in others (REFERENCE).
(2) Here are some results.
The first thing we found is that what people know and what they do with what they know has a major impact on their life chances.
You see that highly skilled adults are twice as likely to be employed and almost three-times more likely to earn an above-median salary than poorly skilled adults. In short, poor skills severely limit people’s access to better-paying and more-rewarding jobs.
Highly skilled people are also more likely to volunteer, and they see themselves as actors rather than as objects of political process.
People with better skills are even more likely to trust others, so trust isn’t just about how you were brought up or about the people with whom you live, it closely relates to your skills. And that tells us that we can do something about trust by giving people the right skills. And that’s important, because without trust in public institutions, public support for ambitious and innovative policies is hard to mobilise, particularly where we ask people to make short-term sacrifices for long-term benefits. Without trust, citizens and businesses also avoid taking risks, and delay decisions on investment and innovation that are so important.
So in the end, fairness, integrity and inclusiveness in public policy all hinge on the skills of citizens.