Navigate to the threaded discussion and respond to the following:
Which of the common barriers affects your personal decision making processes the most? Discuss how the awareness of these barriers will help you to make better decisions in the future. Provide a detailed explanation of your analysis that demonstrates clear, insightful critical thinking.
Find an example in a reputable periodical of one of the common barriers to critical thinking. How has this barrier prevented resolution of a problem? Provide a detailed explanation of your analysis that demonstrates clear, insightful critical thinking.
Your initial response should be 200 to 300 words in length and include two academic sources that are properly cited.
BARRIERS TO CRITICAL THINKING:
The tendency to see reality as centered on oneself.
Self-Interested Thinking: supporting conclusions because they are in your interest/to your benefit.
¨Your wants and needs are not objectively more important than anyone else's; they certainly don’t determine truth. Critical thinking is objective.
Self-Serving Bias: the tendency to overrate oneself.
¨Most people think they are above average; most people are thus wrong.
¨Critical thinking requires one to be honest about their abilities.
Sociocentrism
Group centered thinking
Group Bias: the tendency to see one’s own group (e.g., nation) as being inherently better than all others.
Conformism: allowing beliefs to be shaped by outside forces such as:
¨Groups (Asch’s “line” experiment)
¨Authority (Mailgram's “shock” experiment)
Unwarranted Assumptions and Stereotypes
Assumption: a belief without absolute proof.
Unwarranted Assumption: a belief without “good reason.”
¨Stereotype: assuming that all people within a group (e.g., sex, race) share all the same qualities; assuming that a particular individual that belongs to a group has certain qualities simply because they belong to that group.
¨Hasty Generalization (type of stereotype): drawing conclusions about a large group from a small sample.
Being aware of an unwarranted assumption does not justify it; but it is the first step in eliminating it.