"Critical Thinking" may sound like an obnoxious buzzword from liberal arts schools, but it's actually a useful skill. Critical thinking just means absorbing important information and using that to form a decision or opinion of your own—rather than just spouting off what you hear others say. This doesn't always come naturally to us, but luckily, it's something you can train yourself to do better. Show
Train Yourself to Pay Attention to the Right DetailsOne of the most important parts of thinking critically is learning what details matter. We're exposed to so much information and so many different opinions every day that it's really easy to get lost in the details. Subsequently, we need to train ourselves to learn which details matter and which don't. Start by listening to your gut. If something doesn't sound true, that's your first warning sign. From there, you can start looking for other holes in an argument. Here are just a few ways to do that:
Arguments are misleading for a ton of reasons, and events like a presidential debate or science debate are a great place to train yourself to pay attention to particular details. The more you pay attention to these kinds of details the more automatic your critical thinking will become. G/O Media may get a commission Always Ask QuestionsKnowing which details to watch out for is the first part of critical thinking, but it's pretty useless if you don't know what types of questions to ask next. After all, thinking critically and asking questions go pretty much hand in hand. Author and psychologist Maria Konnikova suggests a few ways to do this in the video above, using Sherlock Holmes as an example:
Writer Scott Berkun shares his own set of questions for thinking critically:
Of course, this is similar to something like the Socratic method, where a series of questions help you reveal what you think about an argument or idea. Regardless of how you approach it, the end goal is to learn to think critically and analyze everything. As we've seen before, it's important to always ask yourself why something is important and how it connects to things to you already know. As you do that, you train your brain to make connections between ideas and think critically about more information you come across. Watch for Qualifying PhrasesThinking critically isn't just about training your brain. It's also about training your ear so you notice subtle little words and phrases that can set off warning flags. As we already mentioned, it's impossible to pay attention to everything, so knowing the handful of phrases that tend to come before a weak argument is really helpful. Generally speaking, a good warning flag for when you need to put on that critical thinking cap is when the speaker uses a qualifying statement. The Wall Street Journal has a bunch of these types of phrases:
These are the types of statements that tend to signal untruth, and they're a good indicator that it's time to start paying attention. Once you do, you'll know that it's time to start asking questions. Know and Confront Your Own BiasesWhen we talk about critical thinking it's impossible not to talk about the fact that we're pretty bad at recognizing biases in our own thinking. We're all biased about information whether we realize it or not, and part of critical thinking is cultivating the possibility to see outside those biases. We've talked about this a lot already, so we won't dig into them again here, but the basic idea is summed up pretty well by author Terry Pratchett in his book The Truth:
Thinking critically is all about confronting those biases as often as possible. It's tough, but if you take the time to think about opposing views throughout the day, you'll train your brain to do that more often. Practice Any Way You CanAs with anything, if you want to get good at critical thinking, you need to practice it every day. A lot of this can certainly be done in your own head, but you can do exercises to whip your brain into shape. Generally, one easy way to do this is to keep a journal of some kind. This could be casual observations or a notebook with opinions, but the point is to write every single day. Once you're comfortable writing, blogging is not only good for you, it's also a great way to engage other people and challenge yourself to see alternate points of view. Likewise, participating in a healthy debate with friends is great practice, as is reading more conscientiously. Critical thinking doesn't end. The more knowledge you cultivate, the better you'll become at thinking about it. It's navel gazing in that you're constantly thinking about thinking, but the end result is a brain that automatically forms better arguments, focused ideas, and creative solutions to problems. What is it called when you have an opinion on something?Some common synonyms of opinion are belief, conviction, persuasion, sentiment, and view. While all these words mean "a judgment one holds as true," opinion implies a conclusion thought out yet open to dispute.
What is the word for judging someone before you get to know them?Prejudging means to judge someone/something before knowing or having enough information (the prefix pre- also indicates that).
Which word means to think about something before making a decision?deliberation Add to list Share. The process of carefully considering what to do is called deliberation, like your deliberation before making one of the most important decisions in your life.
What describes the opinion you have about things?Your attitude is your way of thinking about something or behaving in relation to it. Attitude is often used with words like good, bad, positive, or negative to refer to the overall way a person or group thinks about and often behaves toward something.
|