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.
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.
