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. tt
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.
