Critical Thinking: Your Weapon Against News Bias And Propaganda

Humans are self-deceiving animals. We can rationalize anything we want and believe anything, and these believes can even lead to genocides. Something is true because we always believed it, because we want to believe it, or because people around us believe it. This leads to errors in our thinking, biases, unground fears, and misinterpretation, just to name a few. To defend ourselves for these kind of errors, there is a weapon called critical thinking. In this article, I will describe critical thinking and how you can develop it.

News Bias And Propaganda

There is nothing new about propaganda. Primitive forms of propaganda have been a human activity as far back as reliable recorded evidence exists. The Behistun Inscription (c. 515 BC) detailing the rise of Darius I to the Persian throne is viewed by most historians as an early example of propaganda. Why is it now becoming a bigger problem, and why are we paying more attention to it? New technologies and social media can spread fake news very quickly and can have very big consequences.

People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.

Seth Godin

You can literally post something, go on a plane, and discover eight hours later, when you get out of the plane, that you are canceled and maybe even lost your job because some people got upset about your message and it became viral. Propaganda influenced the 2016 and 2020 US elections. A gunman opened fire at a pizzeria because it was falsely reported as being the center of a pedophile ring. This kind of news reports can result in distress or reputational damage for the people or organizations mentioned in these articles. To recognize news bias and propaganda, there is one important skill, and that is critical thinking.

Most people lie about small things but would be afraid to lie about big things. But manipulators know that if you insist on a lie long enough, many people will believe you — especially if you have the resources of mass media to air your lie. All skilled manipulators are focused on what you can get people to believe, not on what is true or false. They know that the human mind does not naturally seek the truth; it seeks comfort, security, personal confirmation, and vested interest.

Richard Paul

What Is Critical Thinking?

To define critical thinking is complicated; there is no one simple definition, so I will use a quote from Richard Paul (he was Director of Research and Professional Development at the Center for Critical Thinking, and was Chair of the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking):

Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better.

So there is a lot of thinking there… Critical thinking has been the subject of much debate and thought since the time of early Greek philosophers such as Plato and Socrates and has continued to be a subject of discussion into the modern age, for example, the ability to recognize news bias and propaganda.

Critical thinking has at least these three features:

1. It is done for the purpose of making up one’s mind about what to believe or do.

2. The person engaging in the thinking is trying to fulfill standards of adequacy and accuracy appropriate to the thinking.

3. The thinking fulfills the relevant standards to some threshold level.

We have difficulty with critical thinking because of some traits in our psychology. For example, we fall for biases, we cannot know what we don´t know, and other problems in our thinking.

Egocentric Thinking

We tend to assume that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as we do. Egocentric thinking is viewing everything in relation to oneself. That makes us self-centered, and we consider only our interests. For most people, it is difficult to identify this characteristic within themselves. Usually, people are unaware of their thinking patterns. People cannot only be ignorant but even just not interested in other ideas. Most people lack even a fundamental level of self-reflection; every psychologist, psychiatrist, neurologist, and neuroscientist will tell you this, our brain is lazy, we like to take shortcuts, we like to jump to conclusions, we don´t like to think `slow.´

Another problem is that egocentric thinking can be rewarding in our society; there are many successful business people, lawyers, politicians, and others who are egocentric thinkers. They are closed-minded to the thoughts and ideas of others. This damages their critical thinking abilities. Egocentric thinking leads to the thinker’s inability to apply the methodology consistently. Critical thinking includes identification of prejudice, bias, propaganda, self-deception, distortion, misinformation, etc. The more clearly we are aware of ourselves, our strengths, and our weaknesses, the more likely our critical thinking will be productive. Open-minded thinking is one of the fundamental critical thinking skills. The best defense to minimizing thinking egocentrically is to be aware of it and to be mindful of the needs of others. In essence, to continually strive towards viewing ideas and concepts from multiple vantage points.

Sociocentrism

Sociocentrism is a tendency to assume the superiority or rightness of one’s own social group. It leads to groupthink and people seeking for validation by the group. Sociocentrism is natural in groups of any kind, social, religious, or professional, but we need to be aware of it in case it becomes necessary to neutralize certain excesses. The following features can be observed in most cases of sociocentrism:

• They have a narrow-minded perception of reality.

• They cultivate an almost arrogant self-referencing.

• The Other –anyone who is different– is observed with suspicion and mistrust.

• They are convinced they are in possession of the truth, that they are right.

• They may hold extreme positions and aspirations.

• Leaders are invested with generating collective thought.

• They adopt a certain proprietary, all-pervasive, and sometimes outrageous rhetoric.

Another result of sociocentrism is that people want to appear that they understand because they don´t want to look like an idiot. A result of sociocentrism is also that mainstream news nowadays is made to sell, and earn money. So journalists will do what keeps them being paid and conform to the rules of the group.

According to Maslow, if you are self actualized you are able to stand alone in your believes, and you  don´t need to be validated by other people.

What Do We Need for Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is empathy-based; instead of being a slave to our own emotions, we consider the feelings of others. As a result, we stay open-minded and solution-focused. As a result, we’re able to analyze a situation and make a fair evaluation more objectively.

I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth . . . with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order . . . being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. 

Francis Bacon

The elements of thought consist of the following:

Purpose: what is the goal, what is the objective? Why the article has been written, and what the author wants you to feel, think or even do as a result of reading it. Even accurate stories may have been written in a way that is designed to steer you towards a particular point of view or action.

Asking Questions: what exactly is the problem?

Using Information: collecting of data, facts, evidence, reasoning. Make sure that you’re using sources you can trust, biases aside.

If people use the sentence: `It is true because we believe it.´, there is a problem.

L. Eldler

Interpretation and inference: this is coming to conclusions. An important quality for that is logical reasoning. In logical reasoning, there is deduction, induction, and abduction.

Deduction is the conclusion drawn from the structure of an argument’s premises by use of rules of inference , formally those of propositional calculus. For example: X is human, and all humans have a face, so X has a face.

Induction is drawing a conclusion from a pattern that is guaranteed by the strictness of the structure to which it applies. For example: The sum of even integers is even. Let x,y,z be integers, then 2x,2y,2z are even by definition. Then 2x+2y=2(x+y)=2z, which is even; so summing two even numbers results in an even number.

Abduction is drawing a conclusion using a heuristic that is likely, but not inevitable given some foreknowledge. For example: I observe sheep in a field, and they appear white from my viewing angle, so sheep are white. Contrast with the deductive statement: Some sheep are white on at least one side.

Assumptions And Concepts: what do we assume, are there presuppositions, what are theories, what are laws, what principles do we use?

Implications Or Consequences: that which follows logically, the result.

Point of View: frame of reference, perspective, orientation, world view. There is never just one simple answer, and nothing is black or white. Explore all options and think outside of the box before you come to any conclusions.

Things To Practice When Thinking

Our thinking has to be clear; if something is not clear, check it back. Be sure to be accurate and look for relevance. Our thinking needs breadth; we have to look at something from more than one point of view (playing devil´s advocate can be very useful for this). We have to look for depth, looking and searching for complexity in the issue. Our thinking needs to be significant, instead of superficial. We need to be fair. And we must analyze if we have sufficient information.

Knowledge is based on truth, truth is based on facts. Facts can be verifiable. Facts are not whatever you want them to be.

L. Edler

Intellectual Virtues

Having a high IQ doesn´t make you an intellectual or good at critical thinking. Having good lexical knowledge and or being good at memorizing also doesn´t make you an intellectual. For critical thinking, you need to have the ability to gather pieces of relevant information. Furthermore, you have to have intellectual humility; you must recognize where you can fall into traps, for example, traps of bias or not being aware of hiatus in your knowledge. Intellectual empathy and integrity are also necessary for critical thinking. Having a consciousness of the need to imaginatively put yourself in the place of others in order to genuinely understand them, which requires the consciousness of your egocentric tendency to identify truth with your immediate perceptions of long-standing thought or belief. Therefore you also need Intellectual perseverance to continue trying to reflect even though it is difficult. You must have an open mind and be fair-minded. And finally having confidence in reasoning and know how to follow facts.

How to Develop Critical Thinking

Realizing all the things necessary for critical thinking, you will have discovered it is not an easy thing to do, and it is not my purpose to discourage you. So let´s see how we can develop critical thinking. It requires a lot of abilities. Critical thinking is not easy, it is an effort, and you have to train yourself. However, you can learn to improve your critical thinking ability by developing certain routine activities and applying them to all problems that present themselves. Once you understand the theory of critical thinking, improving your critical thinking skills takes persistence and practice.

Things you should try to do:

• Do not look for failures or errors but for truths.

• Do not take a superficial approach, but look deeply into the issues.

• Do not display a negative attitude but an exploratory one.

• Do not automatically accept information before verifying it.

• Do not make hasty inferences, but take time to be sure.

• Do not be stubborn and inflexible, but reasonable and open-minded.

• Do not believe in your own good judgment, but aspire to it.

• Do not tend to formulate reproaches, but hesitate and reflect.

• Do not generate mistrust and insecurity but quite the reverse.

• Do not search for scapegoats but analyze the causes and consequences.

• Do not allow yourself to be caught up in prejudices and mental models, but be aware of them.

• Do not allow anyone to think for you, but cultivate sensitive cognitive independence.

Detach yourself from the noise around you. You are developing, or you are regressing. How much time do you waste on social media? What is social media bringing you, and is this worth all the time you spend on it?

Improve your observation skills by slowing down your pace of processing information and training yourself to pay closer attention to your surroundings. Mindfulness can help with this.

Improve your analytical skills by taking on new experiences. For example, you might read a book about a concept you’re unfamiliar with or take an online math class to push yourself to think in new ways and consider new ideas. Doing so can help you build the skills to interpret new information and make rational decisions based on sound analysis.

Improve your inference skills by placing focus on making educated guesses rather than quickly drawing conclusions. This requires slowing down to carefully look for and consider as many clues as possible, such as images, data, or reports, that might help you evaluate a situation.

You can start practicing critical thinking right away, and it is an exciting journey that will never end!

Interesting links:

Your Idea About Science May Be Completely Wrong

You Cannot Know What You Do Not Know: Dunning-Kruger Effect

How You Keep Fooling Yourself; Cognitive Dissonance

Main Stream Media is Making Us Feel Bad

Be More Curious!

Empathy and Compassion

Social Justice Warrior: The New Sorcerer’s Apprentice?

Pathocracy: Are Some of Our Leaders Psychopaths?

The Problem If 2 Plus 2 Does Not Equal 4

A useful link if you want to learn more about critical thinking:

The Foundation for Critical Thinking

This article was inspired by an interview by Alison Morrow with dr. Linda Elder:

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