ApplyingPsychology to Everyday Life

Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking

1.13 Recallthe basic criteriafor critical
thinking that people can use in
their everyday lives.
The real world is full of opportunities for scientific,
the commercials on
well-reasoned thinking. Think about all
television for miracle weight loss, hair restoration, or herbal remedies
for arthritis, depression, and a whole host of physical and
mental problems. Wouldn't it
be nice to know how many of these claims people should
believe? Wouldn't you like to
knowhow to evaluate statements like these and possibly save
yourself some time, effort,
and money? That's exactly the kind of "real-world" problem that critical
sort out.
thinking can help
Critical thinking means making reasoned judgments (Beyer, 1995;
&McGill, 2017). The word reasoned means that people's
McLaughlin
judgments should be logical
and well thought out. Critical thinking also includes the ability to ask and seek
answers
for critical questions at the right time (Browne &Keeley, 2009). An
example of a critical
question might be, "Is someone paying you to do this research/sell this product, and is
this a conflict of interest?" or "Do you have any good evidence for the
claims you are
making, or are you just giving your opinion?" Critical thinking can also help us avoid
false beliefs that may lead to poor decisions or even prove dangerous to our mental and critical thinking
physical health. making reasoned judgments about claims.
 While the word citical is often viewed as meaning "negative that is rot the Irotu
term here, Instead, it's more related to the word criteria,' as in thinking that meets c
high crteriaor standards (Nosich, 2008), There are four basic criteria for critical
that people should remember when faced with staterments about the world aroundh
(Browne &Keeley, 2009, Gll, 1991; Shore, 1990);:
thirkrn
1. There are very few "truths" that do not need to be subjected to testhe
Although people may aocept religious belefs and personal values on faith, everAh
else in life needs to have supporting evidence. Questions that can be investigated cr
pirically (.e.,verified by observations and gathering of evidence) should be examire.
using established scientific approaches. One shouldn't accept anything at face val
but should always ask, "Howdo youknow that? What is the evidence? Can vo. k.
more specific in your terms?" For example,many people still believe that astrology te
study of the supposed influence of the stars and planets on the birth of an infart
be used to make predictions about that infant's personality and life events as he
she grows. But scientific investigations have shown Us, time after time, that astroloo.
is without any basis in truth or scientific fact (Dean & Kelly, 2000; Hines, 2008: Ko
1980; Narlikar, 2013; Wiseman, 2007).
2. All evidence is not equal in quality. One of the most important, often overlooke
steps in critical thinking is evaluating how evidence is gathered before deciding that
it provides good support for some idea. For example, there are poorly done expen.
ments, incorrect assumptions based on the wrong kind of data gathering,studies that
Could not be repeated, and studies in which there were major design flaws. There aro
also studies that have been deliberately manipulated to produce the findings that the
researcher (or whoever is paying the researcher) would prefer. For example, the resuits
of a study on the effectiveness of a particular drug would be immediately suspect it
the researcher is being paid by the company making the drug. As a critical thinker.
Vou should be aware that the wilder the claim, the better the evidence should be: For
example, Ihave not yet seen any evidence that convinces me of alien visitations or
abductions!
3. Just because someone is considered to be an authority or to have a lot of
expertise does not make everything that person claims automaticaly true.
One should always ask to see the evidence rather than just take some expert's word
for anything. How good is the evidence? Are there other alternative explanations? ls
the alternative explanation simpler? If there are two explanations for some phenom
enon and both account for the phenomenon equally wel, the simplest explanation is
more often the best one--a rule of thumb known as the law of parsimony. For exarm
ple, let's look at crop circles, those geometric patterns of flattened crop stalks that
have at times been discovered in farmers' fields. Two possible explanations for crop
circles exist: Either they are made by aliens in spaceships-as is the claim by many
alleged experts -or they are made by human beings as a hoax.** Which explanationis
simpler? Obviously, the hoax rationalization is the simplest, and it turned out to be cor
rect for the crop circles that appeared in England in the late 1970s and 1980s: David
Bower and Doug Chorley, two British men, confessed to creating the crop circles as a
prank, thought up in a barroom and meant to make fun of people who believe in alen
visitations (Nickell, 1995; M. Ridley, 2002; Schnabel, 1994).
4. Critical thinking requires an open mind. Although it is good to be a little skeptica,
people should not close their minds to things that are truly possible. At the same time,
it's good for people to have open minds but not so open that they are gulible** ano

"criteria: standards on which a judgment or decision may be based.

**hoax: something intended to fool people, a trick or lie.
***gullible: easily fooled or cheated.
 apt to believe anything. Critical thinking requires a delicate balance between skepti
Cism and the willingness to consider possibilities-even possibilities that Contradict
previous judaments or beliefs. For example, scientists have yet to find any convincing
evidence that there was once life on Mars. That doesn't mean that scientists totally
dismiss the idea, just that there is no convincing evidence vet. don't believe that
there are Martians on Mars, but if Iwere shown convincing evidence, Iwould have to
be willing tochange my thinking-as difficult as that might be.

Critical Thinking and SocialMedia

1.14 Identify strategies for critically evaluating news and other information
shared on social media.

Twitter and other social media make it very easy to hear about may different things: new
products, new information about some celebrity or political figure, and so on. Think back to
the information on critical thinking discussed earlier in the chapter. How do youknow that
what you read about in these venues is actually true?