“History is written by the victors” is a quote everyone may know, but its wisdom often seems far from our own lives—after all, we’re far from becoming history, right?
However, what it reflects is the more general phenomenon of survivor bias, which I claim has shaped our lives from the moment we were born. Indeed, the fact that you were born at all means your parents were probably in a position of relative stability. Furthermore, as the only two significant adult figures in much of your only life, your parents become “living proof” that you will eventually end up in a stable position, just like them. It’s also easy for the parents themselves to perpetuate the misconception that “if you work hard enough, you’ll succeed,” an only partial truth that survivor bias distorts as absolute.
Moreover, this bias extends beyond just your parents, as all the adults you meet as a child are those who have achieved relative success, whether as teachers, performers, etc. Thus, survivor bias convinces children that every adult has an allocated place on society, a dangerous misconception that can cause youth to grow too carefree and complacent.
Another ubiquitous perpetrator of survivor bias is popular media and its depictions of the “highly competitive career”, a trope that deludes you into the same false belief that “hard work always pays off.”
Personally, survivor bias—whether from parents, other adults, or popular media—convinced me that no matter what I did or how hard I failed, everything would turn out OK, and that society would surely correct me if I ever strayed too far. However, I now realize that society could care less about your individual survival—it only appears benevolent because the society you see consists only of those lucky enough to succeed.