Critical Thinking

Rational, objective thinking is a hallmark of science. Scientists need to be able to critically think about a problem or issue from a variety of perspectives, but it is not just scientists who need to be good thinkers. Critical thinking skills allow you to be a good consumer of ideas. Before deciding to buy a car, most people would spend some time evaluating what they wanted to buy, how much money they have to spend, what kind of car has a good safety record, and so on. The same thinking processes can be applied to ideas. These critical thinking processes are not necessarily intuitive. The good thing is that we can be taught what they are and how to use them. Thus, learning to think critically is a skill we can acquire with practise. Wade (1995) outlined eight processes that are used in critical thinking:

Ask questions and be willing to wonder — Curiosity precedes all scientific discoveries and is the basis for acquiring knowledge. For example, suppose you are interested in whether physical exercise is important for mood. Questions you might be wondering about could include: Does getting exercise change your mood? Do people who work out daily feel happier than people who don’t get any exercise? Does the kind of exercise matter? How much exercise makes a difference? How do you measure mood anyway?

Define the problem — We need to think about exactly what we want to know about the connection between exercise and mood. There are many ways to define exercise: it might mean walking every day to some people or lifting weights or doing yoga to others. Similarly, some people might interpret mood to be something fairly fleeting, while other people might think mood refers to clinical depression. We need to define the issue or question we are interested in.

Examine the evidence — Empirical evidence is the kind of support that critical thinkers seek. While you may be aware that a friend or relative felt better when they started running every day, that kind of evidence is anecdotal — it relates to one person, and we don’t know if it would apply to other people. To look for evidence, we should turn to properly conducted studies. In psychology, these are most easily found in a searchable database called PsycINFO that is available through university libraries. PsycINFO contains a vast index of all of the scholarly work published in psychology. Users can often download the original research articles straight from the PsycINFO website.

Analyse assumptions and biases — Whenever we are reasoning about an idea, we are bound to begin with certain assumptions. For example, we might assume that exercise is good for mood because we usually assume that there is no downside to exercise. It helps if we can identify how we feel or think about an idea. All people are prone to some degree to confirmation bias, which is the tendency to look for evidence that supports your belief, while at the same time, discounting any that disconfirms it. This type of bias might be reflected in the social media accounts we follow — we follow people who think like us and do not follow people who might have opposing, although possible valid, points of view.

Avoid emotional reasoning — This process is related to the previous one. It is hard to think about anything in a completely objective manner. Having a vested interest in an issue, or personal knowledge about it, often creates an emotional bias that we may not even be well aware of. Feeling strongly about something does not make us think rationally; in fact, it can be a barrier to rational thinking. Consider any issue you feel strongly about. How easy is it to separate your emotions from your objectivity?

Avoid oversimplification — Simplicity is comfortable, but it may not be accurate. We often strive for simple explanations for events because we don’t have access to all of the information, we need to fully understand the issue. This process relates to the need to ask questions. We should be asking ourselves “What don’t I know about this issue?” Sometimes issues are so complex that we can only address one little part. For example, there are likely to be many things that affect mood; while we might be able to understand the connection to some types of physical exercise, we are not addressing any of the myriad other social, cognitive, and biological factors that may be important.

Consider other interpretations — Whenever you hear a news story telling you that something is good for you, it is wise to dig a little deeper. For example, many news stories report on research concerning the effects of alcohol. They may report that small amounts of alcohol have some positive health effects, that abstaining completely from alcohol is not good for you, and so on. A critical thinker would want to know more about how those studies were done, and they might suggest that perhaps moderate social drinkers differ from abstainers in a variety of lifestyle habits. Perhaps there are other interpretations for the link between alcohol consumption and health.

Tolerate uncertainty — Uncertainty is uncomfortable. We want to know why things happen for good reasons. We are always trying to make sense of the world, and we look for explanations. However, sometimes things are complicated and uncertain, or we don’t yet have an explanation for it. Sometimes we just have to accept that we don’t yet have a full picture of why something happens or what causes what. We need to remain open to more information. It is helpful to be able to point out what we don’t know, as well as what we do.