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. vv
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.
