When reading through chapter 4 I found that using different languages to describe the same
event was very interesting. It show us how something can be viewed in so many different
ways, even though it is the same thing. This tells us that we are all different people and don't
see or hear things the same. Overcoming these issues can be dealt with by using sense of
knowledge and thinking things though.I have a hard time thinking of a time when I had an
argument that turned out that I was mistaken. However I have let people know about
something happening and it turned out that I did not have all the facts and was wrong. I
admit that this is not a good feeling, knowing that your word isn't what you say it is damages
your reputation and people will not take your word for anything in the future.I do enjoy the
videos every week and especially this week. These videos and exercises within the video are
a good way to get the point across. As for having any questions about things learned this
week. As I read all four of the social errors and biases I would have to say that I am guilty
of "one of us/One of them" way of thinking. In just thinking about when I am describing a
person in a particular situation I tend to first describe their origin or nationality; their gender
and lastly some characteristic about them. However, being Puerto Rican, I tend to do it
everyone. Which makes no sense. I can overcome this social error by thinking before I speak
and take a moment to cognitively think about how I describe a person when speaking. These
chapters have been very eye opening to me. My entire family including myself are known
for displaying "ad hominem" fallacy. By using critical thinking skills such as listening to
understand and not just listening to reply. Ask questions in order to gain the person's
perspective. Do not be too quick to respond, do my own research in order to make an
educated reply. Honestly, I really enjoyed learning about the different types of fallacies that
we encounter on a daily basis. It is very intriguing how I have lived all this time and never
knew about these concepts. After reviewing the reading for this week I realize that out of all
of the skills that come with critical thinking the one I struggle with on this weeks reading is
"knowledge" I tend to lean on experiences versus knowledge. I have never been one to read
or dig too deep into books or finding the truth in things. I have always felt life experience
was the best teacher. I plan to continue to read and open my mind to learn more for
knowledge .When it comes to fallacies the one that sticks out and hits home to me is the
accent! I am an emotional thinker by nature so my facial expressions or the words that I say
may have more emphasis than others. I like to consider this my "passionate tone" but I no
see that this can also come across aggressive and create a lot of misunderstanding.
Something I definitely need to work on.Again the most important take-away from this week
is the fallacies - manipulation comes to mind. I need to really dig deeper into thought and
knowledge instead of leaning on my own thoughts, emotions and opinions. Life is hard but
one thing I have learned and I say this all the time is that "it may be a bad day but it's not a
bad life" Learning, reading, understanding and finding knowledge will set you free to truth.
After reviewing the Four Social Errors and Biases presented in this week's lesson, the social
errors/ biases that significantly affects me is social Expectations. a
Social expectations have a significant influence that can lead to collective delusions in which
people attempt to fit the evidence into their cultural worldview.
Because I have a strong sense of faith and integrity, and I believe in rules and structure,
which could cause me to have errors or biases in particular situations.
To overcome and help minimize this social error, I need to be aware of my thinking and
biases. I need to make a conscious effort to implement safety measures by using my critical
thinking skills to bring awareness to my thoughts and opinions, evaluate my thoughts,
implement reason and logic, and broaden my relation, perspective, and understanding.
A fallacy is an argument that appears to be correct, but there is a fault found with additional
analysis. There are numerous types of fallacies, and I have seen or have used before. The
one I identify with and use most is fallacies of relevance. Fallacies of relevance contain one
or more premises that are logically irrelevant or unrelated to the conclusion. Fallacies of
relevancy include personal attacks, appeals of force, appeals to pity, popular appeals, appeals
to ignorance, hasty generalizations, straw man fallacies, and red herrings. Effective critical
thinking is the antidote to combating fallacies because it requires a more in-depth
examination of the information presented. Using critical thinking tactics and skills allows me
to spare my emotions, opinions, and biases from my argument. Critical thinking requires
questioning, evaluation, logic/factual supportive evidence, which will enable me to identify
disagreement and fault in reasoning, protecting me from being influenced or accepting of
false information. It also allows me to determine if the fallacies were deliberate or
unconsciously .Reflecting upon the learning activities, concepts, ideas, and topics covered
this week, I identified fallacies as the most intriguing. Learning the differences and
identifying fallacies is the most beneficial lesson. I will implement my knowledge gained to
be a well-informed, educated, effective critical thinker. Another concept presented in this
week's notable lesson is the different types of cognitive/perceptual errors, including self-
serving biases. I believe that I am most affected by the Social Errors and Bias “One of us/
one of them”. Throughout my life when playing sports and attending school students were
taught to sperate us from the students from the other school. We were taught that they were
the outsiders or students that were not as cool and smart as us. Though sportsmanship was
taught, I believe that more emphasis could have been applied to better values when it came
to competitive sports. To overcome this bias and to learn from my experiences, it is best to
identify if I am feeling the same way and change my lessons taught to the younger
generation. It is adamant that educators and public servants set a higher standard to eliminate
bias that are taught. We must show that all students and persons are equal, and we must
show respect even if respect is not given. Fallacy of Composition, when a person assumes
that one bad person in a group must represent the entire group. Examples of Fallacy of
Composition can be seen when observing a group of minority young males. A person can
might view most of a group as “thugs or gangsters” and will not involve themselves with the
group. A person will not see that its possible that the “thugs and gangsters” only look and
dress a certain way. The persons in the group may be outstanding citizens and could possibly
contribute to the community. You must always use your critical thinking skills when
listening to any fallacy. It is best to think though the layers of information that is given to
you and not make assumptions from the fast limited information that is provided in the
beginning. Learning and discussing biases is probably one of the most sensitive topics to
discuss. More than likely people that are less confrontational will have difficulty talking to
someone about their bias and will be uncomfortable explain their reasoning. I enjoyed
exploring the topic of biases because everyone could benefit to learn more about themselves.
I believe that I am most affected by the Social Errors and Bias “One of us/ one of them”.
Throughout my life when playing sports and attending school students were taught to sperate
us from the students from the other school. We were taught that they were the outsiders or
students that were not as cool and smart as us. Though sportsmanship was taught, I believe
that more emphasis could have been applied to better values when it came to competitive
sports. To overcome this bias and to learn from my experiences, it is best to identify if I am
feeling the same way and change my lessons taught to the younger generation. It is adamant
that educators and public servants set a higher standard to eliminate bias that are taught. We
must show that all students and persons are equal, and we must show respect even if respect
is not given.
Fallacy of Composition, when a person assumes that one bad person in a group must
represent the entire group. Examples of Fallacy of Composition can be seen when observing
a group of minority young males. A person can might view most of a group as “thugs or
gangsters” and will not involve themselves with the group. A person will not see that its
possible that the “thugs and gangsters” only look and dress a certain way. The persons in the
group may be outstanding citizens and could possibly contribute to the community. You
must always use your critical thinking skills when listening to any fallacy. It is best to think
though the layers of information that is given to you and not make assumptions from the fast
limited information that is provided in the beginning.
Learning and discussing biases is probably one of the most sensitive topics to discuss. More
than likely people that are less confrontational will have difficulty talking to someone about
their bias and will be uncomfortable explain their reasoning. I enjoyed exploring the topic of
biases because everyone could benefit to learn more about themselves. Diffusion of
responsibility effects me because I do not pay much attention when in a large group. I have
been working on that though because if I were struggling and needed help moving
something for example I would hope people in a group would help me move the objects.
The one fallacy I see used almost everyday in my line of work is appeal to force. Being in
the military you always have someone who is a higher ranking who tends to use their rank
or position to over power junior soldiers when corrected. Critical thinking comes into effect
when I listen to the higher ranking individual and just take a moment to process the
reasoning and so called facts used in the argument, if there is no actual facts or reason
behind their argument I will not take place because it will only lead to them to use appeal to
force with me or the junior soldiers. Personally I enjoyed how social error/bias and fallacies
were well broken down to understand the actual meanings. Going more in depth with each
one actually gave me a better understanding of how each of them is used which provided
more knowledge. In reviewing the 4 Social Errors and Biases One of us/None of Them,
Social Expectation, Group Pressure and Conformity and Diffusion of Responsibility. Group
Pressure has the most effect on me in my work environment.
I can help overcome Group Pressure by taking the time to speak to each of the team
members individually and educate them to help them understand facts to form their own
opinion and be less persuaded by the group. For each team member to have their own
informed response to be an individual.I personally have seen Ad Hominem in an argument
in the presidential debates. The debates had each of the candidates attack others personally.
Candidates involved others families. There was no direct fact to what they were stating it
was to avoid answering a question they did not want to answer or did not have the answer to
possibly. Critical thinking skills will make you less likely to be influenced by arguments that
are based on fallacies and faulty reasoning because you will investigate to make sure that
you have facts and if you should let it influence you or you are right to disagree and not be
influenced. The learning activities this week were very detailed. There were many types of
fallacies. Many that were very similar in meaning by changing a word you change the
meaning .The most interesting to me was the video "The Red Herring and Ad Hominem
Attack". It explained the fallacies in detail and gave real life examples of how they were
used.I feel that all the fallacies are a little confusing as to how to they are used. I will need
to spend some time reviewing them for further knowledge to know the name and to be able
to identify them easier. Self-serving bias affects me the most in my life. My career is
predominantly male driven, which requires me to be extremely confident and controlling. A
lot of my male colleagues are intimidated by my personality, which hinders our professional
relationship. I must remind myself that I no longer have complete control over situations,
allowing someone to lead.
Equivocation is a fallacy I have personally experience a lot in my life. A company’s rules
and regulations are written in “black and white,” but not all situation can be determined by
the rules. There are gray areas in situations, that a critical thinker must reason about before
deciding. As a manager you must ask how or why a situation arose to terminate an
employee, otherwise you could destroy a life. In reference to the Social Errors and Biases
presented in the book, I am most affected by the bias of “One of us/One of them.” I am
affected in several aspects of my life. I am affected in the “Blue States/ Red States in the
church where the church is the “Red States” and my wife, and I are in the “Blue State” How
do y0ou overcome this bias. That is a good question. The idea is to pray for the people that
cannot see the truth of what is happening can change their minds. The second idea would be
to take the higher road and talk to the people involved to help see to a better understanding
of how we can fix this and move on.I think we all have had the opportunity to use one or
more of these fallacies in an argument at one time or another. I believe in my case I would
have to go with the Fallacy of Division. The fact is that with my membership with an
organization automatically makes me a member of a “Red States” group when I am not that
type of member by any means. I am guilty of inclusion, not by choice. This class on Critical
thinking has really opened my eyes to the problems/fallacies of a lot of things that I was not
aware of. I will now be warier of these situations and will do better to make better decisions
down the road.Reflecting on what was covered this week. I believe everything was well
covered this week. However, the videos were a useful source of work on fallacies. The book
was also source in showing the differences in Social Errors/Biases, and the fallacies in
arguments. In time. I will be working on these Social Errors/Biases, and fallacies to make
better decisions . I feel like I am more susceptible to group pressure and conformity. I have
always been a person who wanted to be included in the group so I socialized by doing what
they did whenever they asked me to. Even though I sometimes try to resist, it is very easy
for me to give in to whatever other people are doing at that moment and as a result, I had
picked up some bad habits for a couple of years that became almost routine. One way I
could avoid this is by just avoiding the people who are bad influences, I have tried setting
limits for myself whenever I was around these people but in the end, when they wanted to
do more, I did as well. one thing I see often if you can call it a fallacy, is the over-
exaggeration of a story, many times I have seen people take a story that was mostly true and
exaggerate the results to obtain more sympathy or respect. people will often add to the story
or leave parts of a story out to make themselves look better in other peoples eyes, this is very
hard to avoid but is also something to look out for. More often the individual will add parts
to the story after they have already told it the first time and this usually helps me tell if
someone is over-exaggerating. when someone is trying to gain sympathy from a story, they
will usually keep it short and toss in an additional detail after they are finished telling it or
try to make a big thing seem like it's not a big deal. by analyzing a person's posture and tone
you can usually pick out what part of the story was the fallacy. one thing that has confused
me about chapter 5 is the use of fallacy recruitment, it also interested me because I
questioned whether such a group actually believes what they're doing is right, or if they
know what they are doing is wrong but use reasoning to get other people to believe them.
Also, why would such a group want to grow and disassociate from their family just to be
part of a different family, the whole idea seemed very counter-intuitive. Chapter 4 talks
about Diffusion of Responsibility as an error in thinking, and it's one that I had never really
thought about before. After reviewing it (and the other three), it's definitely the one I'm most
affected by. More often than I'd like to admit, I'll see something happen at work that I could
fix or address, but elect not to on the grounds of "well, it isn't my responsibility*. In order to
overcome it I'll need to stop focusing so much on a "required" versus "not required"
dichotomy, and make room in my thinking for a "should even though it isn't required"
category.The fallacy of division led to an enormous drop in Verizon stock prices (around
10% in just one week) at the end of 2018. For years, users of the website Tumblr (owned by
Verizon) complained about the prevalence of "Bots" - accounts run by a computer program
that served no purpose other than to post enormous numbers of links (often claiming to be
"Free Porn" to entice users to click them) that would redirect to malware and scams. The
Verizon staff took the characteristics "our users don't like Bots" and "Bots often post adult
content" and drew the incorrect conclusion "our users don't like adult content". As a result,
they banned all adult content on the website, despite the fact that many of the website's
internal communities were built on the sharing of adult content. Users left the site by the
thousands, and it became almost entirely unprofitable overnight. If the executives had
exercised some critical thinking skills when making the decision, it would have occurred to
them that there are other factors besides the nature of the advertised content that would
cause users to dislike the bots . After reviewing the Four Social Errors and Biases the one I
am most affected by is "Diffusion of Responsibility". This is something I have recently
noticed about myself especially in the work place. I work in a restaurant so they're are plenty
of little things to do if I'm not busy. The problem is that if the job hasn't been assigned to me
I wont take initiative to do it. In the past week at work I have been putting in all of my effort
to get what needs to be done with out my boss asking me to. I do dishes, sweep, roll extra
silverware etc and it feels a lot better than acting lazy.
One fallacy I have seen in an argument recently was between my mother and brother. The
type of fallacy was 'Fallacy of Accent". Since it has gotten cold in Michigan my brother has
gotten lazy with bring in the garbage, leaving it in the front yard, instead of the back yard
where it goes. My mom always asks him, "I told you to bring the garbage in, why didn't
you?" and his answer is always, "What do you mean mom? I did bring it in, it is in the front
yard." Even though he knows that is the wrong spot for it and that it will irritate my mom,
it's an excuse for his action.Critical thinking will make you much less likely to be influenced
by arguments based on fallacy because it allows you to think for your self, rationalize ideas,
find factual evidence.
The most interesting activity this week was learning about social errors and biases because it
taught me a lot about myself and others, also humbled me a bit. The four social errors and
biases, I hate to admit, are all very relatable and habits I have done. However, out of the four
the most relatable to me is group pressure and conformity. Group pressure, also known as
peer pressure in high school, gravely affected me. I struggled to fight for my own opinion
and rarely even formed my own opinion the majority of my childhood. My past has given
me a drive to overcome this social error. I look back and realize how unhappy I have been in
the times I have just followed the crowd. Due to this I fight harder to make sure I have
overcome conformity; I fight harder now for the voice I didn't have back then. I did not
realize until reading this that fallacies are everywhere. Unfortunately, I feel that fallacies and
stereotypes are very intertwined . For example, in the past it has been said that african
americans are involved in more criminal activity; this seemed true due to the higher
population of african Americans in prison. However, it has been shown that these
communities were being over policed leading to more arrest. It had nothing to do with one
race being more criminal than the other, it was due to the lack of policing in white
neighborhoods , and over policing in black. With critical thinking you are able to form your
own opinion. If you just went by the prison stats it would seem true but with critical thinking
you can dig deeper and see how the variables make the results unreliable. You can only
come to this conclusion by thinking for yourself and using reasoning. After reading the four
social errors/ biases, One error that I was most affected by was the One of us / One of them
error. I picked this error because it stood out the most. This error affected me because,
people in the world today treat others differently for many different reasons. For example
due to the number of cases we have had with police and citizens killing, it has caused
citizens to treat people who work in law enforcement different. It has caused people to feel
as all law enforcement officers are bad people. And this so far is not true. Even with so
much going on there still some good law enforcement officers in the world. I think no one
be judge or biases against a person because of there race, job title, sex, or religion. Everyone
should be treated the same. Everybody should be held accountable of there own actions. One
way I can overcome this error is by stop looking at one person actions and holding it against
everyone.Fallacy is known to be found in a argument when it appears to be correct and
incorrect. Informal and formal fallacy is found to be different. Informal Fallacy is when an
argument is psychologically or emotionally persuasive logically incorrect. With formal
fallacy it is when argument itself is invalid. I can relate to informal fallacy because when
thinking with emotions can cause you think something or a problem can be more than it
appears. And that can lead to an argument due to incorrectly thinking or making assumption
to something that appears to be going on and that is not. There have been times when I have
done this because I was thinking based on my emotions. The Bias video was very good
because it described how people can treat others different for many different reasons. The
social errors/bias in the book that I'm the most affected by is one of us/one of them errors.
Unconsciously at times we tend to treat people who are similar to us a little bit better and
with more respect than we treat others. We tend to automatically treat others who are
different from us with suspicion. My example is when I meet someone that speaks the same
language, I automatically feel like we have a connection because we have something in
common. In my mind it seems like they would be easier to trust. However logically I know
that it's not the case. A way to overcome would be by increasing self-awareness and letting
go of many assumptions .Fallacy of equivocation is the fallacy that I've personally seen used
in an argument. Especially right now more than ever with the recent presidential election,
social unrest and COVID-19 related topics. It can be really easy to get wrapped up into
reading something and automatically assuming it's true especially if it's from your trusted
news source. You can prevent from falling for fallacies by critically thinking and gathering
all the facts on the matter. Educating yourself on the topic by gathering information from
different sources and people. Not confusing but fallacy of accent is one that I still need to
get more familiar with. The most interesting part of this week was learning of all the
different types of social errors and biases. I would say the social errors/biases that I am most
effected by is "One of Us/One of Them" and "Diffusion of Responsibility". I believe I can
overcome this social error/bias by letting go of assumptions and to learn acceptance in
different situations. One fallacy that I have seen in an argument is when my boss made the
statement "you must not want a break because its break time and you have not went yet'.
Critical thinking skills can make you less likely to be influenced by arguments based on
fallacies because you will think things all the way through. The most interesting concept I
learned this week was about fallacies and social error. The social error were very interesting
because I didn't realize that it was actually effecting me. I honestly think I have fallen under
each of those categories of social errors/biases. I am going to read more on it because I want
to learn more on how I can overcome those social errors/biases. This week activities made
me gain a lot of knowledge on different things. I am personally affected by emotional errors.
Embarrassed to say it, but I am an extremely emotional person. Anything that I see that
appeals to my emotions, I am drawn into it. This can be a positive and a negative thing. For
instance, a few years back, I went to a local animal shelter just to see about volunteering
there, and after I saw all of the posters that said, "When you adopt a furry friend, you give
them a forever home", I ended up going home with a dog of my own. The best way to
overcome this bias, if I ever do, is to think about the reasoning and logic behind the bias.I
can say that a fallacy that I use a lot of, is hasty generalization. I think that almost everyone
uses this very often, even if we don't mean to. I recently have been trying to get back into
health and fitness and have seen a lot of health influencers on social media advertising their
meals and people in the comments assuming that because that person is healthy, what they're
eating is also healthy. I think that thinking critically could take place in this scenario by
allowing yourself to disengaging from the barrier of envying this person. Just because you
eat what they eat, does not mean that you are also healthy - nor is it healthy to begin with.I
think that the most important lesson this week that I will be taking away is the fallacies. I
think that understanding and acknowledging fallacies are important in professional work as
well as life in general. It helps us understand the logic behind the fallacy, and it will help in
decision making and being more logical in the process. I am most affected by stress.
Sometimes I can get a thought in my head and become so overwhelmed by it where I will
not take the time to think it through and it may cause me to say or do something I don't
mean. I was happy to read about the three levels of thinking. I am naturally an analytical
person so the analysis aspect of critical thinking comes naturally to me but then when I
interpret and think about things I've been through in my experiences I can pull myself away
from that barrier. A fallacy that I see often used is the red herring fallacy where people will
try to throw you off in the attempt to answer a question without really answering the
question at all. I see this a lot in relationships. I would just make sure that I am listening
fully before I speak and asking myself questions to make sure that I'm not being thrown off
from the answer that I am seeking. The most interesting topic this week that I learned about
was the ad hominem fallacy. I do this a lot to my friends and I did not realize it before
reading about it. I'll have to be careful not to do that because it's never good to make people
feel like you're attacking them. I grew up in a religious home. My biases and social errors
seemed to be inherited and weaved in my DNA. The biggest social error or bias I faced
while growing up in that environment was probably the "One of us, One of them" way of
thinking. I was told that anyone outside of our religion or group was not to be trusted or
even befriended. Other biases and social errors could fit this as well. I feel like growing up
in my house, all of these ways of thinking were implemented at one point. The root of it to
me was always Us or them.When I got old enough to see the world around me and do my
own research, meet people outside of the church and discover my own voice I realized I was
being lied to. Perhaps not maliciously or even knowingly. So to overcome these errors the
path for me was enlightenment, questioning everything and expanding my social
circle.During the heat of protests during the summer, I attended a Black Lives Matter march.
I heard the opposition shout many hate filled and ignorant messages. I heard a ton of
fallacies of division being used that day. "All black people are thugs." my blood boiled at the
ignorance of this idea. My uncle is a black doctor, my fiancés father is a police officer. I am
a college student. The idea of grouping a whole race, class or gender into this box to fit a
narrative seemed so small-minded. Critical thinking helped me that day, I didn't not become
overwhelmed with the anger festering in my blood. I knew facts, I had logic and data. The
ignorance witnessed that day come from the exact opposite stance. Lack of facts, no logic or
data. Critical thinking allowed me to see the bigger picture. Perhaps her hatred came from
generations of people force-feeding her ideas. Maybe she never broke free and questioned
life for herself. I heard her stance or opinion and was able to mentally dismiss it due to the
lack of supporting facts. That day I had this feeling that I can now put in words.. One key
ingredient to healing this nation is the ability to think critically. I genuinely enjoyed learning
about all the different ways the media and businesses are using fallacies to profit from the
idea that they are trying to get across or sell. This week was very enlightening. I hope
everyone got something useful out of the content. The four biases I've learned are Emotional
Intelligence, Empathy, Artificial Intelligence, and Turing test, the one that I would like best
is Emotional Intelligence because to perceive accurately, appraise and express my emotion
or generate my feelings when they facilitate the ability to understand my emotion and
emotional knowledge. (One of the Fallacy are FORMAL FALLACY , ) Critical thinking
while using a fallacy will really solve my problem, Fallacy still causes them problem,
because for some reason that word will not let the disagreement rest so the person that uses
it will not either. The Fallacies and Critical thinking in action, I have gained a lot from week
1 and week 2, I'm still learning and trying to turn my assignments in on time, but I enjoy
taking my time trying to understand every meaning of these assignments. Critical thinking in
action plays games and learning how to play games generates my mind, I be trying to learn
how to enjoy it with the kids but I be thinking hard on what to do how to use the controller.
