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Barriers to Critical Thinking

Lack of relevant background information Poor reading skills Bias Prejudice Superstition

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Barriers to Critical Thinking

Wishful thinking Short-term thinking Selective perception Selective memory Overpowering emotions Self deception Face saving Fear to change

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Barriers to Critical Thinking EGOCENTRISM Egocentrism is the tendency to see reality as centered

on oneself. Egocentrics are selfish, self-absorbed people who view their own interests, ideas, and values as superior to everyone else’s.

Self-Interested Thinking: supporting conclusions because they are in your interest / to your benefit.

Your wants and needs are not objectively more important than anyone else's; they certainly don’t determine truth. Critical thinking is objective.

Self-Serving Bias: the tendency to overrate oneself. Most people think they are above average; most

people are thus wrong. Critical thinking requires one to be honest about

their abilities.

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Barriers to Critical Thinking SOCIOCENTRISM Sociocentrism is group-centered thinking. Just as

egocentrism can hinder rational thinking by focusing excessively on the self, so sociocentrism can hinder rational thinking by excessively on the group. Sociocentrism can distort critical thinking in many ways. Two of the most important are group bias and conformism.

Group Bias: the tendency to see one’s own group (e.g., nation) as being inherently better than all others.

Conformism: allowing beliefs to be shaped by outside forces such as:

Follow the crowd, (Solomon Asch experiment) Authority (Mailgram's “shock” experiment)

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Barriers to Critical Thinking UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS AND

STEREOTYPESAn assumption is something we take for granted, something we believe to be true without any proof or conclusive evidence. Almost everything we think and do is based on assumptions. The assumptions may or may not be correct, but without evidence they are really only guesses. Example: We support capital punishment based on the assumption that it deters crime, is it true?

Assumption: a belief without absolute proof.

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Unwarranted Assumption: a belief without “good reason.” Stereotype: assuming that all people within

a group (e.g., sex, race) share all the same qualities; assuming that a particular individual that belongs to a group has certain qualities simply because they belong to that group.

Hasty Generalization (type of stereotype): drawing conclusions about a large group from a small sample.

Being aware of an unwarranted assumption does not justify it; but it is the first step in eliminating it.

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Barriers to Critical Thinking RELATIVISTIC THINKING Relativism is the view that truth is a matter of opinion.

There are two popular forms of relativism: subjectivism and cultural relativism.

Subjectivism: the view that truth is a matter of individual opinion; what one thinks is true is true for that person. Truth exists independent of what anyone believes.

Moral Subjectivism: The view that what is morally right for person A is what they think is morally right.

Cultural Relativism: the view that what is true for person A is what person A’s culture or society believes to be true. This is the claim that truth is a matter of social or cultural opinion.

Cultural moral relativism: The view that what a culture thinks is morally right to do, is morally right to do, in that culture.

However, relativism is false.

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Why relativism is falseAssume you are a cultural relativist:

Case 1: You are studying culture A & B. B loves war, A is pacifistic. Culture B conquers Culture A. Notice that you can’t morally criticize B as a cultural relativist.

Case 2: You are a member of B and B thinks that pacifism is immoral and embraces enslaving other cultures and enslaves A. Notice that—since you belong to B—you can’t criticize B’s moral values (their accepting it makes it right). Also, you must think it immoral to be a pacifist and yet must also think that the pacifism of those in A is moral (since they approve of it). That is a contradiction.

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Case 3: The majority in B deems infant sacrifice morally obligatory; you belong to a minority in B that disagrees. B invades A and forces them to participate in their practices. Notice that you must both accept and reject infant sacrifice (you belong to two groups/cultures that have contradictory positions). Notice that, with relativism, there can be no moral progress. Since there is no “objective truth” there cannot be progress to it. If B were to abolish infant sacrifice, they would not be doing something better, but simply changing what is morally right in their culture.

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Notice that relativism does not promote tolerance: Suggests that if you live in an intolerant society, you are morally obligated to be intolerant.

The fact that it is hard to discover what is true—even if it is impossible to discover what is true—does not mean that there is no truth or that truth is determined by opinion/consensus.

We probably won’t be able to discover whether or nor God exists; but whether he does or not is not determined by opinion/consensus.

Something is true if it accurately describes the way the world is; opinion and consensus do not determine the way the world is, but something can accurately describe the world even if we can’t prove that it does.

What an inability to discover the truth entails is that we should be more open-minded and intellectually humble. Given that we can’t prove our beliefs true, we should be more open to critically evaluating them and hearing the arguments of others.

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Barriers to Critical Thinking WISHFUL THINKING

Have you been guilty of wishful thinking, believing something not because you had good evidence for it but simply because you wished it were true? People fear the unknown and invent comforting myths to render the universe less hostile and more predictable.

Example, they fear death and listen to stories of healing crystals, communication with the dead. They even fantasize about possessing extraordinary personal powers and accept uncritically accounts of psychic prediction, levitation.

Horoscope, medium, soothsayer…… ??????? This error is quite common:

Belief in tabloid headlines; healing crystals; communication with the dead; “it won’t happen to me” beliefs.

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Exercise

Have you ever been guilty of self-interested thinking, self-serving bias, group bias, conformism, or wishful thinking? Without embarrassing yourself too much, discuss these critical thinking lapses in groups of six, then share with the class whatever examples you’d like to discuss.

Reference

Bassham, Irwin et al (2005) Critical Thinking, 2nd ed. Mc-Graw Hill