Researchers led by Lauren Eskreis-Winkler at Northwestern and Columbia found that people systematically underestimate how often failures and problems occur across 30+ domains of life—a bias they call the failure gap. The study found stark examples: for every three species going extinct, the public knows of one; for every five weapons missed by airport security, people think one slips through. When researchers showed people data correcting this bias, it shifted real-world policy decisions—educators reduced support for harsh school punishments, voters lowered support for mass incarceration, and managers extended parental leave to new mothers.