When 'Fear of Losing' Becomes a Generational Label — Starting with Taiwan's Students' Fear of Failure Index

In the 2018 PISA survey, the Numeracy Lab analyzed a sobering statistic: Taiwanese students ranked first globally in their 'fear of failure index,' with girls at 0.8 and boys at 0.54, significantly higher than the global average. The survey focused on three core questions—worrying about others' opinions, doubting one's own talent, and questioning future plans. Taiwanese students showed the highest agreement rates globally across five related items. From an experiential standpoint, this data is not surprising. East Asian societies are centered around academic competition, where individuals are immersed from a young age in a 'flawless competition.' Exams cannot be failed, and choices cannot be wrong. Furthermore, the Confucian concept of 'duty to strive' views effort as a moral responsibility to parents and oneself, making failure not just a matter of ability but also accompanied by guilt. The Numeracy Lab also pointed out that when 'ensuring success' becomes the primary goal, students tend to choose only easy tasks and play it safe, ultimately losing the courage to challenge themselves. I believe the core issue isn't that students 'aren't brave enough,' but rather that the entire evaluation system stigmatizes failure. When society measures success and failure by a single standard, the cost of risk-taking is magnified infinitely, and 'fear of failure' becomes a rational form of self-protection. However, as mathematician Littlewood said, 'Attempt the hard problems, maybe you won't solve them, but you will prove something else.' Schools should be places that embrace failure. Only when the motivation for learning shifts from 'fear of falling behind' to 'desire to understand something' can the fear of failure index begin to loosen its grip.