Critical thinking and Confirmation bias.

I thought I'd make a little thread on Critical thinking and Confirmation bias. I believe we all at some point lack critical thinking ability and we are all guilty of confirmation bias in one way or another.

Critical thinking is thinking that questions assumptions.[citation needed] It is a way of deciding whether a claim is always true, sometimes true, partly true, or false.

Critical thinking has been described as "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do."[2] It has also been described as "thinking about thinking."[3] It has been described in more detail as "the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action".

Confirmation bias, is different, but seriously effects our ability to critically think.

Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs

www.skepdic.com...

For example if you believe in ghosts, you will look for all the information looking for their existence and ignore all the information that proves they dont. This is just an example. But, i believe it also explains a lot when it comes to those with more of Conspiratorial world view, the ones who see symbols and signs in every new movie or every new major breaking news story. Those who are always looking for the false flag for example. It also helps explain the partisanship that we see here on the political forums.

Confirmation bias is seeing the world through a filter, thinking selectively.

youarenotsosmart.com...

The videos have been posted before, but I think they are worth watching for new members, who are coming across the vast array of information available on ATS.

I would be interested to hear other members opinions on this subject.

Unfortunately I think this is a great thread lol. It's unfortunate because our world has made this type of thread necessary. It's a good thread for newcomers and veterans alike in my opinion. S+F

reply to post by wagnificent


I guess humans have never had to deal with this amount of information in our history and it is difficult to know what's truth and what is made up. It does not help when the main stream media muddy's the waters and misreports and sensationalises.