It seems strange to me.
Our business leaders, our governments, our think tanks all state the same thing; that the most important skill we can teach the next generation of leaders is that of critical thinking. You know, that ability to think beyond the first impression, and adapt with evidence. Ask any engineer, lawyer, doctor, or scientist. This is the very basis of these professions.
That’s not the strange bit.
What I find remarkable is the consistent demonstration from these same people to do the exact opposite.
We have emotional pleas from world leaders without presentation of evidence. We have decisions to punish organisations that are seeking to uphold the rule of law. We have rather feisty debates on social media and so-called investigative journalists expressing little more than unvalidated opinion.
I make no comment on the claims being made, only that the manner of their expression often lacks the credibility that would come from a basis of evidence and a demonstrable thought process involving critical appraisal.
How will we achieve the stated objective of enhancing the critical thinking of the next generation if we continue to demonstrate through our actions that critical thought is unnecessary?
The repeated expression of emotive vitriol is a common cognitive bias known simply as the bandwagon effect. Basically this means that we have a tendency to support a position just because we hear it repeated a lot. Couple this with another thinking bias, the availability cascade (the idea that if we hear something often enough it must be true) we are left with our understanding of truth being based only upon that which is thrown at us the most!
If we are truly to be better critical thinkers as a society we will need to change these views. There are a number of ways to do this, but here are three things to consider right away:
- The absence of support for one view (or even the statement that you disagree with that view) is not support for the opposing view. To put this in current context, it is possible to disagree with President Trump without supporting President Elect Biden.
- A story that is repeated often, without evidence, is just that; a story. It may be true. It may not be. Without evidence it is just an idea, not a fact.
- Just because you hear a story often does not make that true. The absence of evidence makes it no more credible than any other story. It doesn’t make it wrong, just unable at that point to be proven right!
If we are to really take the idea of critical thinking seriously we will need to stop, take a deep breath, and examine our own behaviours. It is each of us as individuals who can make the difference and restore calm thoughtful debate to our way of sharing ideas. Isn’t that the lesson we teach our children? If only we would listen to our own lessons more we might see more critical thinking and fewer emotive attacks in our social media and our communities.
