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. ss
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.
