Chapter 2: Barriers

Emotions and Biases

Myth: emotions are the opposite of reason. This is a popular belief, but nowadays most people acknowledge that emotions are an inescapable part of being human and often a reliable guide to what is right and true, helping us form our values and discover our passions.

Here are a few examples of times when emotions lead to critical thinking:

The anger Bryce feels over the injustice of a decrease in community funding for programs to help the homeless prompts Bryce to research this issue and get involved.

The excitement Ta’kiya feels about a future career as a nurse gives her the motivation to learn about how she can go back to school and get registered.

Krista has a gut feeling that there’s something wrong with her relationship with her fiancé. She analyzes this feeling and realizes that the differences between her fiancé’s temperament and values and her own are too much, and she decides to call off the wedding.

Emotions can (and probably should) play a role in big life decisions like getting married, quitting a job, or getting a tattoo, but critical thinking should also be a component.

So when do emotions become barriers to critical thinking? Strong emotions like stress, anger, depression, or passion 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. The key is to recognize when you are in such a state and to avoid making decisions at these times.

Emotions can also affect how we respond to arguments.

Travis is at his cousin’s wedding, and while he’s waiting in line at the buffet, another guest named Nathaniel suddenly starts a conversation with him. Somehow the topic of affirmative action comes up, and Nathaniel voices his opinions forcefully. This is a subject that Travis feels passionately about, and he finds that he disagrees strongly with Nathaniel. Whenever Travis tries to bring up a counter-point, Nathaniel interrupts him to call him “naïve” and his viewpoints “ignorant.” Nathaniel is quick to rattle off statistics that support his point, while Travis cannot always think of a counter-point on the spot. The conversation ends with Nathaniel picking up his plate of shrimp scampi with smug assurance of his complete correctness on the subject, while Travis feels that he looked foolish.

Even though Travis knows he’ll never see Nathaniel again, he finds himself continually irritated whenever his thoughts drift back to that conversation. Driving home later that night, he finds himself coming up with things he could have and should have said to Nathaniel but didn’t. Afterward, whenever Travis reads or watches anything that has to do with affirmative action, he gets angrier than usual thinking about it, and he starts subconsciously attributing the rude behaviors he associates with Nathaniel to anyone else who opposes his viewpoint.

In the example above, Travis has a flood of emotions regarding the topic of affirmative action that compromises his ability to look at arguments on either side objectively, even though the experience that prompted those emotions (an encounter with a rude guest at a wedding) only tangentially has to do with the topic at hand.

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.

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 as being right whenever possible. We all have life experiences that prevent us from viewing situations completely objectively, or preexisting viewpoints that affect how we take in new information.

Ella judges political scandals more harshly when they happen to members of a party she doesn’t support.

Vincent is more willing to believe nutritional advice when it corresponds with eating habits he already keeps.

Social psychologists have documented all sorts of ways that people’s biases creep into their judgment, whether they realize it or not:

A study showed that emails asking professors about research opportunities were more likely to receive replies if the emails came from students with stereotypically white names. 1

Another study demonstrated that men married to women who were not employed tend to disfavor women in the workplace. 2

One of the most pervasive types of bias is confirmation bias, or 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 Niva get into an argument about whether it’s better to buy American cars or foreign cars. When Willis looks online for evidence, he types “why it’s better to buy American cars” into the search engine, rather than something more general like “American vs. foreign cars.” Consequently, Willis ends up only reading sources that support his position that American cars are better.

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.

Under Attack

Because of our biases, it’s hard to stand back and try to look at an issue objectively. But listen generously, and 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.

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

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

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

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

· Strong emotions always make it easier to view a situation objectively.

Evan, who views himself as a political conservative, could be accused of confirmation bias in which of the following situations? Choose the BEST answer.

· Evan has discussions with his more liberal brother to understand the other side.

· Evan advocates for causes he believes in on his personal blog.

· Evan only reads news sources or watches networks that have a conservative leaning.

· Evan always switches his voter registration to the city in which he is currently living.

Give an example of a time when you encountered bias, or overcame your own?

Practice: Emotions and Biases

Hidden Biases

Nowadays, few people in the United States think of themselves as being prejudiced, yet wide disparities across race and gender lines remain. In their book, Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, social psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald reveal how unconscious biases can affect how we judge people and what types of decisions we make in certain situations.

Together with their colleague, Brian Nosek, they developed the Implicit Association Test to uncover hidden biases by measuring how quickly people associate members of certain groups with different qualities. While the test has its critics, it has undeniably sparked discussions on what unconscious biases we all have and what implications these biases have on society.

In the NPR interview below, Mahzarin Banaji discusses the impact that our biases have on how we treat people.

According to the authors of Blindspot, what might be the problem with giving special treatment to people in your in-groups?

· Special favors to people in our in-groups often mean that we’re not helping people outside of our groups.

· More people report feeling racial prejudice when they habitually give special treatment to people in their in-groups.

· Special favors to people in our in-groups often lead to overt racism, such as ethnic slurs or hate crimes.

· People tend to feel very icky and uncomfortable when they do a favor for a neighbor or friend.

When Dr. Banaji’s friend Carla Kaplan was rushed to the emergency room for a hand injury, at what point did the doctor bring in the best-known hand specialist in New England?

· right after the doctor found out that she was a Yale professor

· right after the doctor found out she was a quilter who relied on the use of her hands

· after all other attempts to save her hand failed

· as soon as she was admitted to the hospital

What point about bias does the story about Carla Kaplan’s hospital visit illustrate?

· Hospitals often give male patients high-quality treatment much faster than female patients.

· Doctors tend to give better care to patients who have the same alma mater or hobbies as them.

· People tend to assume that Yale professors rely on their hands more than quilters.

· People have tendencies to help certain groups over others, even when the reasoning isn’t logical.

The article cites sociologist Nancy DiTomaso’s argument that “Discrimination today is less about treating people from other groups badly, and more about giving preferential treatment to people who are part of our ‘in-groups.’” Provide an example that either supports or refutes this claim?

Give an example where a bias in favor of a particular group could result in poor critical thinking?

Culture and Stereotypes

Where do the beliefs we hold come from? From what one should eat for breakfast to how a company handles customer complaints, many of our notions and norms are learned from our experiences within a culture. According to the Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition, culture is defined as “the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization.”3 Essentially, culture is the collection of beliefs, values, and behaviors acquired as a result of being part of a particular group.

Everyone is part of a variety of cultures, ranging from the very broad to the very specific. A single individual might simultaneously identify with American culture, West Coast culture, African American culture, Republican culture, Catholic culture, military culture, urban singles culture, sports fan culture, and board game geek culture.

Enculturation (the process of learning the habits of a particular culture) is inevitable and often a positive thing. But enculturation can also cause the types of biases that inhibit your thinking. Here are two main ways that culture can get in the way of critical thinking:

1. When you acquire a habit of unquestioningly assuming that your culture’s beliefs and behaviors are the “right” behaviors and beliefs

2. When you develop prejudiced views or leap to conclusions about other cultures just because they’re different from yours

Learning about the differences between your cultures and other cultures is important, but it’s sometimes all too easy to slip from noticing a trend about another group of people to stereotyping them.

Stereotypes and Generalizations

· All British people have bad teeth.

· All French people hate Americans.

· All blondes are stupid.

· All guys are slobs.

· All women take forever to get ready.

· All lawyers are sleazy.

· All authors are alcoholics.

· All young people are always texting.

· All old people are obsessed with the weather.

A stereotype is an overly simple and unwarranted assumption about another person or a group of people. Most people have heard of at least some of the above statements, and at the same time, many people have also had a negative experience with being stereotyped in some way at some point in their lives.

“Whenever I tell people that I’m Muslim, they usually have a look of bewilderment about them. ‘But… you don’t cover your hair’ is a common response, as is ‘You’re so modern though,’ and my personal favorite: ‘Well, what exactly are you?'"

- Nida Khan4

“No matter how hard I try, I can never escape stereotyping. I can’t even count how many times I have been told that I should be smart “because I’m Asian.” I know I’m intelligent but I get very annoyed when people just assume I should be a certain way just because of my race.”

- Emily Champion5

“I am a Hispanic college student, and naturally that means that I must have lived a difficult life to get here… I’m Hispanic, so I must be an illegal immigrant from Cuba or Mexico… I’m Hispanic, so when there’s an increase in poverty, crime, and teen pregnancies, I must have something to do with it… Right? Wrong. And yet, as a person of Hispanic heritage, all of the above are stereotypes that I have to deal with on a daily basis.”

- Analda Muy6

Some people assume that only bigots stereotype people, but actually it’s something we all do, whether we realize it or not. Because it’s human nature to identify patterns and organize people in groups, so when we notice a particular characteristic of another person, it’s natural to want to put them into a group. But unchecked stereotypes often lead to prejudiced beliefs and narrow-minded perspectives, which is why recognizing and questioning your stereotypes is important.

An important first step is recognizing the difference between stereotypes and generalizations. A generalization is a broad statement describing a trend about a group. Generalizations, when accurate, are often fair statements. In contrast, a stereotype goes a step further and makes an assumption about an individual on the basis of that generalization.

Generalization: Many people from Hispanic cultures cook with strong spices.

Stereotype: Maritza is Mexican, so she must love hot sauce.

Are Stereotypes Always Bad?

There are times when stereotyping a person or a situation could make you more sensitive. If you’re going on a business trip to Hong Kong and have read that the people there value punctuality, it would probably be a good idea to make sure you don’t show up to a meeting late. If you know that teenage girls are often insecure about their appearances, you might be extra cautious when your fourteen-year-old niece asks you, “How does my hair look?”

It’s one thing to be aware of a generalization and its potential to apply to a specific situation. But when stereotypes turn into fixed and unyielding truths, that’s when the problems start.

If you start internalizing the belief that “Cheerleaders are all ditzes,” the argument “Sasha wouldn’t make a good upper-level manager, because she was a cheerleader in high school” might start to look like a persuasive argument, even if there’s absolutely no evidence that Sasha has any of the negative characteristics popularly associated with cheerleaders.

How can you tell if a stereotype you hold is harmful to your critical thinking? One quick test is to ask yourself how ready you are to modify your assumption in light of new information. This is the difference between thinking, “Roxanne is from Texas, so she might be a gun owner” and “Roxanne is from Texas, so she must be a gun owner.”

People often see what they want to see, and the worst stereotypes are the ones that stay permanent even in light of overwhelming counter-evidence. If you have a fixed belief that all bass players are lazy and Jonas is a bass player, it doesn’t matter if Jonas remodels his car, builds a house, and founds a non-profit charity all before 10 a.m. on a Tuesday, you’ll still see him as lazy.

Which of the following is an accurate statement about culture?

· You can accurately guess exactly what someone believes if you know what culture they’re part of.

· It’s easy to decide which cultures are better than others.

· You have to resist all cultural beliefs if you want to be a good critical thinker.

· Everyone acquires certain beliefs and habits as a result of being part of particular cultures.

Give an example of a culture you identify with, and of a habit or belief that you have acquired as a result of that culture.?

Arziel, an American, holds a stereotype that Islamic countries are violent places. Consequently, she turns down the opportunity to go on vacation to a safe part of Indonesia solely because she reads that Indonesia is a primarily Islamic country, and she assumes that she will be attacked if she travels to the country. Explain how Arziel’s cultural perspective is affecting her critical thinking in this instance?

Has anyone ever made an assumption about you based on a stereotype? If so, explain what happened?

In what way might a seemingly positive stereotype about a group of people (e.g. “African Americans have great rhythm,” or “Gay men are well-groomed”) have a negative consequence?

Practice: Culture and Stereotypes

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:

TED video. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story. Filmed July 2009 at TEDGlobal 2009. To activate subtitles, first click the play button and then open the dropdown menu in the embedded player and choose a language. For a text transcript, follow the link below.

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?

· 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.

· 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.

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

According to Adichie, what is the problem with stereotypes?

· They are untrue.

· They are racist.

· They are convenient.

· They are incomplete.

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.

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

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

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

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

· Nigerians are smarter and more successful than Americans are.

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.

Thinking Independently

Have you ever met anyone who introduced himself by saying, “My name is Corey, and I would describe myself as a mindless follower”? Everyone likes to think of him or herself as an individual, someone who thinks independently rather than being a sheep following the crowd.

But the truth is, we all conform on some level. Some degree of conformity is necessary for a society to function. Imagine what it would be like if there weren’t a cultural consensus that everyone should obey traffic lights or form lines in stores. Conformity can also be a positive force when it comes to following social cues in new situations—for instance, it’s probably a good idea to stand and sit along with everyone else when you’re attending an unfamiliar religious service, or to mimic the professional behaviors of those around you at a new job.

Tendencies to conform are common when:

· You’re in a situation where you’re not sure what to do.

· You feel social pressure to fit in, or you fear negative consequences if you think or act differently.

· You’re in a group. The phenomenon of how groups naturally drift toward consensus when discussing an issue is called groupthink.

This natural tendency to conform happens all the time, even if there isn’t a completely sensible reason for it. You might start watching a television show, not because you were especially intrigued by the premise, but because your friends were all watching it and kept talking about it. Or maybe you saw a play with your family, and you thought it was terrible, but in the car afterward, everyone else was talking about how much they loved it, so you started chiming in that you liked it, too, and maybe you even convinced yourself that you liked it more than you did.

You might develop a strong view about a specific political issue, make friends with people who also hold the same view, and then gradually adopt other viewpoints held by your friends. This is perhaps partly because it seems natural if you spend a lot of time engaging in conversations with people with the same strong stances, and perhaps also partly because you fear rejection from your friends if you disagree with the group.

Even worse, you might make serious life decisions because of other people’s expectations, like going to college to get a degree in business and moving back home because that’s what everyone around you is doing, when all you really want to do is teach English in Korea.

If all of your beliefs are received from other people, and all of your actions are done to fit in, you run a risk of losing your sense of self and living someone else’s life. In the end, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having the same life goals as your friends, or the same religious beliefs as your family, but to be an independent thinker, you’ll want your beliefs to be your own, not just something someone handed to you, especially when the stakes are high.

Recognizing Barriers

As this chapter has discussed, emotions, biases, enculturation, stereotypes, and conformity are all inevitable parts of life, and, in some situations, not necessarily a bad thing. But all of these impulses have the potential to inhibit our critical thinking, which is why taking the time to reflect on your thinking is so important.

The first step to overcoming your critical thinking barriers is to recognize what they are, so try this experiment: Think of a few beliefs you hold, then take a few moments to ask yourself the questions below about them. These questions are especially important whenever you have a strong belief about an issue before you have any evidence for it, which is often a red flag that at least one of the barriers to critical thinking might be at work.

Questions to Help Expose Barriers to Critical Thinking

· Do you have strong emotions surrounding this belief? Do you get knots in your stomach every time you hear the phrase “gun control” ever since you had a heated debate with a coworker over gun laws?

· Do you have any personal experiences that might have led you to this belief? Is your opinion on the public school system in the United States colored by your own mediocre high school experience? Has a bad run-in with a cop strongly affected your views on the role of law enforcement in society?

· Did you acquire this belief because you’re part of a particular culture? Are your feelings about the current political situation in Greece influenced by your childhood growing up around Greek immigrants?

· Does this belief stem from a stereotype you might hold about a particular group? Does your stance on immigration heavily rely on your impressions about what “all Mexicans” are like? Do you shut out what your conservative friend has to say about this issue because you already know what “all Republicans” are like?

· Do all of your family members, friends, coworkers, and/or community members also share this belief? Do you always buy Apple products because that’s what everyone you work with does?

Answering “yes” to any of these questions doesn’t necessarily mean that your belief is wrong, but it might mean that you should investigate your belief a little deeper to make sure that you’re thinking independently.

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

· groupthink

· bias

· stereotypes

· enculturation

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

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

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

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

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

After three of his friends invest in real estate in the same year, Jonah also invests in real estate. Jonah’s critical thinking is MOST likely affected by which barrier?

· emotions

· conformity

· bias

· stereotypes

Jonah’s thinking was affected by a critical thinking barrier, but that doesn’t necessarily mean his decision was a poor one. Explain why.

Consider your attitude toward the value of getting a college degree and explain what influences from your culture and background you think led you to that belief.

Practice: Thinking Independently

The Two 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 a list of premises, or reasons, supporting each issue, while the con side contains a list of reasons opposing each issue. In this activity, we will focus on the pro/con list about the influence of social media in society.

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

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· Yes

· No

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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