The disconnection from community that many people are experiencing could just mean that we're slotting more people into the morally compromised, untrustworthy category. So I guess we just think the moral decline is happening with strangers, with all those other people. Adam's study kind of seems to say that if you get to know people, then you won't think they're on a downward slope of moral depravity anymore.
A lot of people are plagued by the feeling that society used to be better, that neighbors were more helpful, that strangers once talked to you. Some people channel that belief into political action, as in the Make America Great Again movement. A new study explains why the sense that people and the culture have gotten worse is a psychological illusion. This special episode features Hanna Rosin, the host of Radio Atlantic. Subscribe and find new episodes of Radio Atlantic every Thursday.
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