We don't think straight when we're freaked out. Stress, anger, depression, passion, and other strong emotions can cloud our thinking and lead us to say, do, or believe things we otherwise wouldn't. We are more likely to act rashly, misjudge the situation, rationalize illogical actions, and fail to see options when we're under emotional duress.

This impaired state is often described with statements like the following:

I don't know, I guess I wasn't thinking at the time.

Right now I'm too mad to figure it out.

I'm frustrated and hopeless and don't see any solution.

Just stop talking, I need a few minutes.

These are natural states of mind which will occur to all of us. The key is to recognize when you (or someone else) is in such a state and to avoid making decisions at these times. Consider the following advice:

Take a day to think about the tattoo.

Don't make any final decisions in the heat of the moment.

Put the gun down.

That said, emotions are not the opposite of reason. Emotions are an inescapable part of being human and often a reliable guide to what is right and true. This is why we clarify those times when we are "overly emotional."

Under Attack

Critical thinking is largely about beliefs, and most of us have some personal beliefs that are very important to us. Much of your identity, your conception of who you are and your place in the world, is defined by your personal beliefs. This is completely normal and essentially inescapable.

However, you want to be aware of such emotional commitments in order to mitigate the risk of shutting down when challenged with new evidence. After all, you hold your beliefs to be true because they are true to the best of your knowledge. And if it turned out that your understanding of a situation could be improved, you'd want to know more, right?

When we are deeply committed to a belief, critiques of that belief can feel like personal attacks. This often makes us defensive, if not outright hostile. At this point we're more likely to be looking for things to throw at the critic (metaphorically or literally) than we are to be listening with an open mind, willing to acknowledge validity in the criticism.

This hostility toward opposing views is one reason many people have a tendency to only listen to people with similar viewpoints. And, in a related fashion, some people habitually listen to opposing viewpoints but only to confirm how wrong "the other side" is.

It's hard to stand back and try to look at an issue objectively. But admitting the problem is half the battle. Also, recognize that no one is going to trick you into abandoning what you know to be true. Listen generously. Try to comprehend your opponent's perspective. Play out "what if" scenarios. These strategies will help you to obtain a little distance, to see where others are coming from, and to better understand why you believe what you believe and why others think differently. That's good critical thinking.

Answer the following questions about the material above.

Which of the following BEST summarizes the relationship between emotions and critical thinking?

· Emotions are an integral component of the human experience, but extreme emotional states can hinder critical thinking.

· Strong emotions must be resisted at all times if one wants to be a good critical thinker.

· Strong emotions often sharpen our critical thinking skills and lead us to make wiser decisions.

· Emotional moments are usually the best times to objectively scrutinize beliefs and situations.

Save

Poll

Which emotion do you think most commonly leads to decisions that people end up regretting?

Top of Form

· anger

· depression

· fear

· stress

· desire

Submit

Bottom of Form

Your Turn

Top of Form

In theory, since people hold personal beliefs because they presume them to be true, they should want to know of any errors in their thinking in order to modify their beliefs accordingly. Why, then, do you think we as humans have a tendency to react emotionally and defend our beliefs vehemently—even those concerning impersonal subjects—when they are attacked?

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Barriers / 2.2 Practice: Emotions Questions: 0 of 6 complete (0%) | 0 of 3 correct (0%)

Practice: Emotions

Angry Voters, Anxious Voters

Anyone who has lived through an election season knows that campaign ads are often designed to arouse feelings of fear, anger, or enthusiasm in voters, sometimes even more than they are designed to inform. But what impact do emotions really have on voting behavior? Do different emotions affect us in specific ways?

A number of researchers have been curious about the answers to these questions. The first article below appeared in Michigan Today during the 2008 presidential election season to report findings from the University of Michigan and the University of Texas. The second article, summarizing similar research from the University of Massachusetts with the 2012 election in mind, was published in the Association for Psychological Science's The Observer.

Read the two articles below, and then answer the following questions.

Powerful Emotions Affect How Voters Seek Political Information

The Emotional Citizen

What research results in "Powerful Emotions" suggest that accusations of fear-mongering for political results (from both sides) might be exaggerated?

· There's no evidence that political parties appeal to fear as a persuasion tactic.

· Emotions have only a positive influence on voting behaviors.

· Outrage may be more likely to lead to uninformed decisions than fear.

· Fear doesn't actually impact the decision-making process in voters.

Save

According to "The Emotional Citizen," which of the following describes a change in the way that voting-behavior scholars view emotions?

· Scholars used to view emotions as important indicators of voting behavior, but now they view them as biases that need to be eliminated.

· Scholars used to view emotions as a completely negative influence on voting behaviors, but now they view them as a positive influence.

· Scholars used to view emotions as a completely positive influence on voting behaviors, but now they view them as a negative influence.

· Scholars used to view emotions as biases that needed to be eliminated, but now they view them as important indicators of voting behavior.

Save

How do "Powerful Emotions" and "The Emotional Citizen" characterize the impact of anger on voter decisions?

No response saved yet. Save Draft Submit ?

According to "The Emotional Citizen," which emotion is MOST likely to make voters listen to both sides before making a decision?

· enthusiasm

· fear

· anger

· depression

Save

According to "The Emotional Citizen," how does enthusiasm affect voting behavior?

No response saved yet. Save Draft Submit ?

Your Turn

Top of Form

Have you ever felt anger or anxiety regarding a political issue or election? If so, explain how those emotions influenced your vote choice and whether you think they helped or hurt your decision-making process.

📖 01 Thinking

Barriers / 2.3 Groups and Culture Questions: 0 of 3 complete (0%) | 0 of 2 correct (0%)

Groups and Culture

So we've seen how you can be your own worst enemy when it comes to not thinking clearly. Well, we have some more bad news. It's about your friends.

Your Groups

Five things you already know:

1. It's good to think for yourself.

2. Just because a belief is common, that doesn't mean it's true.

3. Peer pressure is what we call the influence from friends and colleagues to get you to believe what they believe.

4. Groups tend to agree, and any group discussing any issue will tend to move toward consensus. This is called groupthink.

5. When you change your behavior to better fit in with the norms of a surrounding group, you are conforming.

Conforming is not necessarily a bad thing—imagine spending time with someone who doesn't conform to any social norms. And figuring everything out for yourself would be exhausting. But this text is about critical thinking, and so our concern is with conformist impulses potentially pushing you away from careful deliberation. When you're facing an issue of some importance, you can consciously work to mitigate these pressures.

Other Groups

We all share a tendency to make assumptions and draw conclusions about members of other groups based on preconceptions about the group as a whole. This is called stereotyping, and it frequently leads to faulty thinking.

Enculturation

Culture interferes with clear thinking by taking everything we've discussed so far and throwing it at you all at once. Consider the following realities:

· Whatever culture you identify with (American, Democrat, Scrabble Player) is part of your identity, and it is thus important to you for that group to continue to be right.

· Anything that contradicts your group's values can feel like a personal attack.

· Pressure to conform and engage in groupthink in your life is coming from one or more of the groups that you belong to.

It gets worse. You learned many (if not all) of your values, ethics, and beliefs in the context of a culture. Whether this involves what one should eat for breakfast or how a company handles customer complaints, you learn these notions from your experience within a culture, from norms you've been exposed to and from authorities you trust and respect.

That's all inescapable. But that doesn't mean you have to be blind to it. In fact, it's such unquestioned beliefs that are the most likely to lead you astray. There's a tendency to believe that your culture's way is the "right" way. We call this ethnocentrism.

Answer the following questions about the material above.

What is the name for the phenomenon that occurs when groups discussing an issue move toward consensus?

· ethnocentrism

· stereotypes

· enculturation

· groupthink

Save

Which of the following situations is an example of conformity that detracts from critical thinking?

· raising your hand before speaking in class because that's what everyone else does

· adopting a similar level of business casual dress as your coworkers when you start a new job

· going to a fancy wedding and watching other people for cues about which fork to use first

· altering your political beliefs to line up with those of the party favored by most of your friends

Save

Your Turn

Give an example of a culture you identify with, and describe a habit or belief you've acquired from that culture.

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Bottom of Form

Are you sure?

If you confirm, all of the multiple-choice questions you've answered on this page will be reset, and your score for these questions will return to zero.

Are you sure you want to proceed? If so, please press Reset Answers.

📖

Barriers / 2.4 Practice: Groups and Cultures Questions: 0 of 6 complete (0%) | 0 of 4 correct (0%)

Practice: Groups and Cultures

One People, One Story?

When you hear the word "Eskimo," what springs to mind? How about the phrase "Southern belle"? Or "Goth teen"? No matter how open-minded we consider ourselves, it's hard to completely escape the influence of stereotypes on our perception of other groups. But is there any harm in hanging onto a stereotype that isn't necessarily inaccurate? In the following TED talk from 2009, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores how these "single stories" develop in all of us, and presents a compelling argument for the danger of having a single story.

Watch the video below, and then answer the following questions.

Read Text Version

When Adichie tells the anecdote about visiting Fide's family, why was she so startled by the sight of a beautifully patterned basket Fide's brother had made?

· The basket was clearly expensive to make, and Adichie realized that she had been mistakenly informed that Fide's family was poor.

· Until that point, Adichie had only thought of Fide's family in the context of their poverty and didn't consider that they might have other facets to their lives.

· Adichie had never seen a homemade basket before.

· The gender roles Adichie had been taught did not permit her to imagine that a boy could excel at a traditionally female craft.

Save

According to Adichie, what is the problem with stereotypes?

· They are racist.

· They are incomplete.

· They are untrue.

· They are convenient.

Save

Your Turn

Top of Form

Adichie summarizes the main argument of her talk by stating, "The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar." Explain what you think she means by this, and describe whether you agree or disagree and why.

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Bottom of Form

Adichie provides a number of examples of seldom-told stories about Nigerians and their achievements. What is she trying to illustrate with these anecdotes?

· Reducing Nigeria to a stereotype overlooks its complexity and ignores the stories of individuals.

· The media stereotypes of Nigeria as a country plagued with problems of poverty, disease, and corruption are not true at all.

· Nigerians are smarter and more successful than Americans are.

· Nigeria deserves aid from wealthier countries like the United States because its people are hard-working, ambitious, and destined to achieve great things.

Save

Adichie contrasts the way she has always had multiple stories of the United States, yet many Americans have a single story for Nigeria. What is Adichie’s explanation for this?

· The United States has a much larger population than Nigeria.

· If the media didn’t portray all Nigerians as poor and suffering, Americans would probably be less inclined to give them aid.

· More stories are told about counties in positions of power, and those in positions of power get more control over how stories are told about themselves and others.

· The London merchant John Locke told a false story about western Africans, and that one story still sticks to this day.

Save

Your Turn

Adichie gives a number of examples of times when both herself and people she knows have fallen into the trap of seeing a "single story" for a group of people. Give an example of a time from your life when you have inadvertently stereotyped a group outside your own.

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Bottom of Form

Are you sure?

If you confirm, all of the multiple-choice questions you've answered on this page will be reset, and your score for these questions will return to zero.

Are you sure you want to proceed? If so, please press Reset Answers.

2.5 Pride

2.6 Practice: Pride

 3.1 Arguments are Support 3.2 Practice: Arguments are Support 3.3 Deduction 3.4 Practice: Deduction 3.5 Induction 3.6 Practice: Induction

 8.1 Language and Thinking 8.2 Practice: Language and Thinking 8.3 Define Your Terms 8.4 Practice: Define Your Terms 8.5 Word Games 8.6 Practice: Word Games

Barriers / 2.5 Pride Questions: 0 of 3 complete (0%) | 0 of 3 correct (0%)

Pride

We want to think well of ourselves, and we want others to think well of us too. Sometimes this compels us to distort reality. We may go into denial and refuse to accept something we'd rather not believe. Or we might rationalize actions by retroactively making up justifications for doing them. And we frequently feel an urge to save face when proven wrong.

If you make a mistake, for example, you might look for an outside factor that could have caused you to make that mistake. That's based on an assumption that you wouldn't make a mistake without some intervening influence. By finding an external cause, you protect your pride and your sense of self. We call this a "self-serving bias."

Bias is a tendency toward thinking a certain way. It's a kind of prejudice, a lean in a particular direction that leads you to favor one party (yourself in this case) as being right whenever possible.

At its most extreme, we can be guilty of self-interested thinking in which we believe only those things that advance our own interests or make us look better. It might sound highly irrational, but it's a tendency all of us possess—which gives us good reason to double-check our thinking anytime we reach a conclusion that just so happens to serve us well.

Here are a few common ways of misleading yourself:

Bias	Problem	Example
Self-serving bias: the tendency to think that your successes are due to your actions, but your failures are due to external factors outside your control.	If you blame all problems on external causes, you may miss an internal problem that causes repeated bad decisions.	Alena has gotten fired from multiple jobs for being chronically late. If she always blames corporate politics or discrimination, she might never fix her bad habit.
Anchoring bias: the tendency to give too much weight to the first piece of information you come across.	The first piece of information you encounter is rarely the most important, and giving it too much weight may distract you from the real issue.	It's easy to be manipulated while shopping if you put too much stock in the retail price you see before the "reduced" sales price. If you're too focused on comparing the sales price to the retail price (your anchor), you may fail to objectively consider what the product is really worth to you.
Expectation bias: the tendency to see what you want or expect to see, sometimes to the point of inadvertently adding or deleting things from memory.	The more emotional investment you have in things unfolding a certain way, the less likely you are to recognize when the causes are actually different.	The trustworthiness of an eyewitness' testimony might be compromised if the eyewitness was subtly encouraged to remember events in a certain way during questioning.
Hindsight bias: the tendency to believe, after an event happens, that you knew it would happen all along.	Looking back, history often seems inevitable. This is especially important to fight against, or else we can fail to understand that we have real choices that will often lead to very different outcomes.	When you encounter a new claim presented as "common sense," you may be inclined to assume that you knew it all along, rather than scrutinize it for credibility.
Confirmation bias: the tendency to look for confirming evidence. When you want something to be true, you tend to look for evidence that fits with what you want to believe and ignore evidence that doesn't.	Confirmation bias can prevent you from reaching the truth—or at least fairly evaluating the claim at stake—even when you think you're objectively seeking out evidence.	Willis and Adam get into an argument about whether it's better to buy American cars or foreign cars. When Willis looks online for evidence, he puts more credence in sources supporting his position that American cars are better. Tip: This is quite counterintuitive, but give more attention to new evidence that challenges your position. It's not that you always need to change your position, but if you do, the new evidence will suggest it.

Answer the following questions about the material above.

When Jermaine, a wine connoisseur, drinks wine poured from a bottle bearing the label of a famous vineyard that produces expensive wines, he declares it delicious. When he drinks the same wine from a bottle representing an inexpensive brand sold in grocery stores, he spits it out and declares it undrinkable. Which bias is he probably guilty of?

· confirmation bias

· anchoring bias

· self-serving bias

· expectation bias

Save

As a sophomore, Priscilla did very poorly on her final exams. She attributed this to unfairness in the test. As a senior, Priscilla scored very well on her SAT. She attributed this to her intelligence and good study habits. Which bias is she probably guilty of?

· confirmation bias

· anchoring bias

· self-serving bias

· expectation bias

Save

As Evan got off the plane in Ukraine, he was treated badly by a Ukrainian guard in customs. Although he later worked successfully with many people from Ukraine, he always felt that Ukrainians were secretly mean-spirited. Which bias is Evan probably guilty of?

· confirmation bias

· anchoring bias

· self-serving bias

· expectation bias

Save

Are you sure?

If you confirm, all of the multiple-choice questions you've answered on this page will be reset, and your score for these questions will return to zero.

Are you sure you want to proceed? If so, please press Reset Answers.

Barriers / 2.6 Practice: Pride Questions: 0 of 9 complete (0%) | 0 of 2 correct (0%)

Practice: Pride

Believing Both Sides of Social Media

As discussed in the previous chapter, critical thinking isn’t just about criticizing other people’s opinions and arguments—it’s about being open-minded to new ideas, and then evaluating them all thoughtfully in order to find the best possible answer.

Unfortunately, as this chapter has demonstrated, we all have bad habits that keep us from considering all new information fairly. We sometimes struggle to think objectively when under the influence of strong emotions. We belong to groups and cultures that instill habits and views. And we all occasionally fall prey to biases that prevent us from rationally considering information. As you investigate different issues, it’s important to combat confirmation bias, the tendency to pay more attention to information that supports your original view.

In his article, “The Believing Game,” Peter Elbow explains how in order to contemplate conflicting views, you can practice what he calls “the doubting game,” where you find fault with the ideas you agree with, and then practice “the believing game,” where you pay attention to what’s good about the ideas you disagree with.

Essentially, you do a mental exercise where you honestly try to believe the argument presented to you, even if it feels foreign to you or opposes your viewpoint. This is followed up with a more critical evaluation of the argument that agrees with your position. The purpose of this exercise is to understand the reasons for opposing arguments and to strengthen the reasons for your own arguments.

Good questions to ask when playing the believing game include:

· What's interesting or helpful about the view?

· In what sense or under what conditions might this idea be true?

· What personal examples have I witnessed that might support this?

ProCon.org provides pro-con lists for a number of controversial issues. You’ll notice on the pro side there’s a list of premises, or reasons, supporting the issue, and the con side contains a list of reasons opposing the issues. In this activity, we will focus on the pro-con list about the influence of social media in society.

Before reading the pro-con list, answer the three questions below.

Poll

In general, do you think social networking sites such as Facebook or Tumblr are good for society?

Top of Form

· Yes

· No

Submit

Bottom of Form

Your Turn

Top of Form

Under what conditions might it be true that social networking sites benefit society?

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Bottom of Form

Your Turn

Top of Form

Under what conditions might it be true that social networking sites harm society?

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Bottom of Form

Read the pro-con list below, then answer the following questions.

Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society?

Which of the following is a premise, or reason, used to support the pro argument?

· Social networking sites harm employees' productivity.

· Social networking sites can lead to stress and offline relationship problems.

· Social networking enables cheating on school assignments.

· Social media may disarm social stigmas.

Save

Which of the following is a premise, or reason, used to support the con argument?

· Social networking is good for the economy.

· Criminals use social media to commit and promote crimes.

· Law enforcement uses social networking sites to catch and prosecute criminals.

· Social media facilitates political change.

Save

Your Turn

Top of Form

From the ProCon.org website, list what you believe to be the three most compelling premises, or reasons, supporting the conclusion that social networking sites benefit society.

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Bottom of Form

Your Turn

Top of Form

From the ProCon.org website, list what you believe to be the three most compelling premises, or reasons, supporting the conclusion that social networking sites harm society.

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Bottom of Form

Your Turn

Top of Form

One of the points on the pro side is, “Social networking sites facilitate face-to-face interaction.” Extend this premise by providing a supporting example from either your life or about someone you know.

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Bottom of Form

Your Turn

Top of Form

One of the points on the con side is, “Social networking sites entice people to waste time.” Extend this premise by providing a supporting example from either your life or about someone you know.

No response saved yet. Save Draft Post ?

Bottom of Form

To read “The Believing Game,” see the article below.

The Believing Game

Reset All Multiple-Choice Questions on This Page

Are you sure?

If you confirm, all of the multiple-choice questions you've answered on this page will be reset, and your score for these questions will return to zero.

Are you sure you want to proceed? If so, please press Reset Answers.

Are you sure?

If you confirm, all of the multiple-choice questions you've answered on this page will be reset, and your score for these questions will return to zero.

Are you sure you want to proceed? If so, please press Reset Answers.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Are you sure?

If you confirm, all of the multiple-choice questions you've answered on this page will be reset, and your score for these questions will return to zero.

Are you sure you want to proceed? If so, please press Reset Answers.

You must complete at least one multiple-choice question on this page before you can reset.

810244

dab32e6a-5085-1

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

827032

dd982eb4-5dd7-1

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

810748

84a62d72-5087-1

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

1241421

a27fb80e-5de3-1

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

915862

22661b4e-5de4-1

put

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

898024

3faf8a1e-a60f-11

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

898026

3fc2b45e-a60f-1

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

923408

40394466-a60f-1

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

923410

40492598-a60f-1

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

923412

405e185e-a60f-1

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R

923414

406cf96e-a60f-1

[{"kind":"init","data

1436381843151:D

webtexts.com

1436381843103

1436381843152

1436381843153

ubmit

[{"kind":"init","data

1436381725266:E

webtexts.com

1436381725219

1436381725267

1436381725268

ubmit

[{"kind":"init","data

1436381610977:A

webtexts.com

1436381610929

1436381610977

1436381610978

ubmit

[{"kind":"init","data

1436381489995:4

webtexts.com

1436381489946

1436381489995

1436381489996

ubmit

[{"kind":"init","data

1436381326909:5

webtexts.com

1436381326857

1436381326909

1436381326910

ubmit

put

ZXQLSxx4Kzp1R