Barriers to Critical

Thinking

 Lack of relevant background information

 Poor reading skills
 Bias
 Prejudice
 Superstition

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Barriers to Critical
Thinking
 Wishful thinking
 Short-term thinking
 Selective perception
 Selective memory
 Overpowering emotions
 Self deception
 Face saving
 Fear to change
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Barriers to Critical
Thinking
 EGOCENTRISM
Egocentrism is the tendency to see reality as centered
on oneself. Egocentrics are selfish, self-absorbed people
who view their own interests, ideas, and values as
superior to everyone else’s.
 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.

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Barriers to Critical
Thinking
 SOCIOCENTRISM
Sociocentrism is group-centered thinking. Just as
egocentrism can hinder rational thinking by
focusing excessively on the self, so sociocentrism
can hinder rational thinking by excessively on the
group. Sociocentrism can distort critical thinking in
many ways. Two of the most important are group
bias and conformism.
 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:
 Follow the crowd, (Solomon Asch experiment)

 Authority (Mailgram's “shock” experiment)

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Barriers to Critical
Thinking
 UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS AND
STEREOTYPES
An assumption is something we take for
granted, something we believe to be true
without any proof or conclusive evidence.
Almost everything we think and do is based
on assumptions. The assumptions may or
may not be correct, but without evidence they
are really only guesses.
Example: We support capital punishment
based on the assumption that it deters crime,
is it true?
 Assumption: a belief without absolute proof.

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 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.
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Barriers to Critical
Thinking
 RELATIVISTIC THINKING
 Relativism is the view that truth is a matter of opinion.
There are two popular forms of relativism: subjectivism
and cultural relativism.
 Subjectivism: the view that truth is a matter of individual
opinion; what one thinks is true is true for that person.
Truth exists independent of what anyone believes.
 Moral Subjectivism: The view that what is morally right for
person A is what they think is morally right.
 Cultural Relativism: the view that what is true for person A
is what person A’s culture or society believes to be true.
This is the claim that truth is a matter of social or cultural
opinion.
 Cultural moral relativism: The view that what a culture thinks
is morally right to do, is morally right to do, in that culture.
 However, relativism is false.

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Why relativism is false
Assume you are a cultural relativist:
 Case 1: You are studying culture A & B. B loves
war, A is pacifistic. Culture B conquers Culture
A.
Notice that you can’t morally criticize B as a
cultural relativist.
 Case 2: You are a member of B and B thinks that
pacifism is immoral and embraces enslaving
other cultures and enslaves A.
Notice that—since you belong to B—you can’t
criticize B’s moral values (their accepting it
makes it right). Also, you must think it immoral
to be a pacifist and yet must also think that the
pacifism of those in A is moral (since they
approve of it). That is a contradiction. 8
 Case 3: The majority in B deems infant sacrifice
morally obligatory; you belong to a minority in B
that disagrees. B invades A and forces them to
participate in their practices.
Notice that you must both accept and reject
infant sacrifice (you belong to two
groups/cultures that have contradictory
positions).
Notice that, with relativism, there can be no
moral progress. Since there is no “objective
truth” there cannot be progress to it. If B were
to abolish infant sacrifice, they would not be
doing something better, but simply changing
what is morally right in their culture.
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 Notice that relativism does not promote tolerance:
Suggests that if you live in an intolerant society, you are
morally obligated to be intolerant.
 The fact that it is hard to discover what is true—even if it
is impossible to discover what is true—does not mean
that there is no truth or that truth is determined by
opinion/consensus.
 We probably won’t be able to discover whether or nor God exists; but
whether he does or not is not determined by opinion/consensus.
 Something is true if it accurately describes the way the world is; opinion
and consensus do not determine the way the world is, but something can
accurately describe the world even if we can’t prove that it does.
 What an inability to discover the truth entails is that we
should be more open-minded and intellectually humble.
Given that we can’t prove our beliefs true, we should be
more open to critically evaluating them and hearing the
arguments of others.

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Barriers to Critical
Thinking
 WISHFUL THINKING
Have you been guilty of wishful thinking, believing
something not because you had good evidence for it but
simply because you wished it were true? People fear the
unknown and invent comforting myths to render the
universe less hostile and more predictable.
 Example, they fear death and listen to stories of healing
crystals, communication with the dead. They even
fantasize about possessing extraordinary personal
powers and accept uncritically accounts of psychic
prediction, levitation.
 Horoscope, medium, soothsayer…… ???????
 This error is quite common:
 Belief in tabloid headlines;
 healing crystals;
 communication with the dead;
 “it won’t happen to me” beliefs.
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Exercise
 Have you ever been guilty of self-
interested thinking, self-serving bias,
group bias, conformism, or wishful
thinking? Without embarrassing
yourself too much, discuss these
critical thinking lapses in groups of six,
then share with the class whatever
examples you’d like to discuss.

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Reference
 Bassham, Irwin et al (2005) Critical
Thinking, 2nd ed. Mc-Graw Hill