I think that the social error/bias that affects me most is conformity.Perhaps I have
always been somewhat of a non-conformist! I can think of quite a few examples of
how conformity affects my everyday life.I am 65 years old, and most of my friends
are around the same age that I am. You cannot imagine the questioning looks and
“friendly” advice that I received when I announced my intention to go back to school
last winter.Attending college simply is not something that people expect senior
citizens to do. Another example of this is that most of my friends and family
members are conservative Republicans, while I am a liberal Democrat. I’m often on
the receiving end of group pressure to alter my views, especially lately since we are
in an election year.To overcome group pressure and conformity, the most important
thing is that I am confident in my beliefs and my decisions. If I feel in my heart that I
am doing the right thing, I will gladly listen to the opinions of others and I will remain
open-minded, but I will not be pushed into changing my thoughts or decisions.
I think that the fallacy of division has become very prevalent in modern American
society.Ever since September 11, 2001, I can easily find the fallacy of division in use
simply by turning on my TV.Because some Muslims are violent extremists, an
overwhelming number of American citizens believe that all Muslims are like
that.Obviously, this is untrue, but many Americans will not accept the idea that
Muslims can be normal and even good people. Critical thinking enables us to avoid
the fallacy of division.Open-mindedness is a requirement of critical thinking. If we
are open-minded, we can accept the fact that people can practice a religion without
having negative characteristics simply because a few people of that religion have
negative characteristics.
I thought that it was interesting to learn about all of the different fallacies this
week.During my lifetime, I have seen these fallacies used again and again. Before
taking this course, I just didn’t have a name for what I was seeing.Sometimes, it
seems like society has finally laid a particular fallacy to rest only to see it resurrected
in a few months or a few years with a new twist.
