Rosling defines the dramatic instincts in the Introduction, explaining them as our “cravings for drama” (15). The subsequent ten chapters each discuss one of these instincts. The instincts enabled humans in hunter-gatherer societies to survive, and they have the greatest impact on Level 1 cultures. In the more developed world, our instincts cause us to overreact. For example, events such as captivity, physical harm, and poison were, and still are, major threats to our health, but, in today’s world, very few people face these fears daily; nevertheless, our brains still react when it’s offered images of people hurt or trapped. These images trigger the fear instinct, despite a lack of threat to ourselves. Today, if left unchecked, the generalization instinct groups similar people and things together in an unhelpful way, leading to the prevalence of stereotypes. These instincts must be consciously controlled in order for us to view the world from a fact-based framework.

Factfulness is “a worldview based on facts” (16) and Rosling’s life’s work. We cultivate factfulness by controlling the dramatic instincts and consulting timely, relevant data about the world. In Chapter 1, Rosling introduces the 4-level income framework. Throughout the book, he uses the levels to explain how consumerism, reproduction, healthcare, and many other factors of daily life progress form emotional “otherness” opinions about people from different places; these factors are dependent primarily on income, rather than religion, culture, or other factors humans use to categorize groups of people.