Lesson_Thirteen

Lesson 13 : 

Lesson 13 Overcoming Obstacles to Critical Thinking

Group Think : 

Group Think Faulty decision-making in a group. Groups experiencing groupthink do not consider all alternatives and they desire unanimity at the expense of quality decisions.” We are not thinking for ourselves instead we allow the group to think for us.

Group Think : 

Group Think Comes from our desire to be liked/respected by those we surround ourselves with. Learn to identify the times when we are more likely to fall to groupthink and develop strategies for overcoming group think.

Refusing to Listen : 

Refusing to Listen Learn to listen to those you don’t like. Growth as a critical thinker demands it. Refusing an idea because we don’t like the person who offered it is an example of very poor reasoning.

Impatience : 

Impatience We live in a “right now” society. People rarely take time to think things through. Critical thinking takes time. Our conclusions should only be made after we have carefully reasoned through the options.

Fallacies : 

Fallacies Keep in mind the danger of fallacies. Examples of fallacies: Ad Hominem Slippery Slope Perfect Solution Ad Populum Strawman

Perfect World : 

Perfect World Because we often wish that certain conclusions are always true, we may reasons as if they are always true, despite strong evidence to the contrary. We wish for a comfortable, fair world that does not exist. Belief in a perfect world can cause us to not consider the dangers of daily life.

Stereotypes : 

Stereotypes A stereotype occurs when we allege that a particular groups has a specific set of characteristics. If we believe stereotypes, we will not approach people and their ideas with the spirit of openness that is necessary from strong-sense critical thinking. Also, we will have an immediate bias toward any issue or controversy in which these people are involved. The stereotypes will have loaded the issue in advance, prior to reasoning.

Stereotypes : 

Stereotypes Why do we use stereotypes? They save time. They are easy and require very little reasoning. Bias. As critical thinkers, we should be curious and open. We should seek new information and judge the information only on its reasoning.

Simplification : 

Simplification Decisions and situations with simple answers allow us to move on rapidly and confidently to the next topic or life event. We naturally like dichotomous thinking because it is simple. Dichotomous thinking seeks to avoid careful reasoning and jump to the simplest conclusion available.

Simplification : 

Simplification While it is unrealistic to think we can consider all possible alternatives, hypotheses, or conclusions, we should resist the urge for simplification and dichotomous thinking. We should learn to look deeper into an issue before making a conclusion.

Bias for Personal Beliefs : 

Bias for Personal Beliefs Most of us believe that our personal beliefs will hold up under tough scrutiny. We are biased from the start of an exchange in favor of our current opinions and conclusions. Most of us are too confident in our own competence. We must remember that we are biased and that some of our personal beliefs may very well be based on poor reasoning. We should never permit ourselves to be so sure of anything that we stop searching for an improved version (better reasoning).

Availability Heuristic : 

Availability Heuristic Our tendency to rely on information and memories that are easily retrieved as a basis for our decision and judgments. The weight attached to a particular piece of evidence therefore depends more on its availability than its appropriateness as a reason. Recent events/experiences have a tendency to disproportionally bias our thinking.

Availability Heuristic : 

Availability Heuristic Avoid this by asking: Is it typical? Is the experience we are relying on typical or is it just the most recent or the most vivid example in our brains?

Wishful Thinking : 

Wishful Thinking We are loyal to an idea when we prefer the concepts or facts we wish were true, rather than concepts or facts we know to be true. The best way to avoid wishful thinking is to practice the critical thinking skills you have learned in this class.

Slide 17: 

Group Activity Each group member should discuss at least one example of an obstacle to critical thinking that they have recently noticed in their own life. Group members should then suggest different strategies that their classmate can use to overcome that obstacle. Be prepared to discuss these results with the class.