18 Tips and Tricks on how to be a better Critical Thinker

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas. It is the ability to use our reasoning and to be able to ask important questions to know the whole picture. Critical thinking is essential especially in this modern age where there is so much information available on the internet that you have to be able to differentiate whether it is fake or true.

The ability to reason and ask critical questions is very important as it can help you identify the full picture of a situation and help you reach a conclusion that is logical, rational, and true. Although there are a few barriers that prevent people from being able to think critically such as basic human tendencies, Language barriers, and fallacies. So in this article, we are going yo tell you a few tips and tricks on how to overcome these barriers and become a better critical thinker.

Here is a video sharing our experiences on critical thinking and a few tips and tricks on how to improve them :

1. Avoiding egocentric tendencies

Egocentric people tend to hold their own personal beliefs and thought and ignore others’ perspectives throughout which is a self-focused person and lack empathy. They strongly believe their instinct even though it’s frequently a mistake The majority of egocentric people do not recognize the shortcomings that are owned this escalate the difficulty of overcoming the barrier.

• Look around, there are lots of people around us who can help and care for us. The perspective they have on them is to help us in solving a problem and to share their opinions. look around, don't focus too much on yourself.

• Slow down, sometimes we rush into decisions that make us think of other people's perspectives and feel our answer is the best answer. slowing down can provide certainty about what decisions are worth choosing over, calming down by thinking about the impact of the decisions that will be taken

• Take a chance, egocentric can also occur when you don't trust others because of bad experiences about trust in others so that you shut yourself off and there is a fear of trusting those around you. learning to give opportunities to other people to show what they can do and their opinions so that in addition to facing their fears, it can also give people who care about us the opportunity to be closer.

2. Avoiding Sociocentric Tendencies

Sometimes we don’t realize that we uncritically embrace the dominant prejudices of a society or culture, especially if we are born and grew up in that society. A person who grew up in a society with its own beliefs and culture will most likely not question those beliefs or cultures and will think that their beliefs are true, even though it might not be true. To avoid this we must:

• Broaden our horizon by learning new cultures or different perspectives

• Be open-minded and fair-minded.

3. Be clear and precise when communicating

We should always be clear and accurate when we communicate to avoid vagueness. A word or sentence is vague when it is unclear, or inexact. A vague piece of information can prevent us from understanding the information clearly. That is why we should always be aware of the consequences of imprecise claims based on vagueness and we should always question the information if it is unclear.

4. Identify emotive words

Emotive words are used to arouse feelings about a subject. It is used to influence us in a negative or positive way. For example, emotive words can be used in advertisements to create a positive bias. Emotive words may hinder us to see the whole picture objectively but, to avoid this we must:

• Learn to recognize and distinguish the emotive (emotional) content of language.

• Focus on the reasoning and the actual facts that support the argument or opinion.

5. How to deal with ambiguity

Ambiguity is a word or expression that can be understood in more than one way. Sometimes it is hard to identify the actual meaning of the information when it can be interpreted with different meanings. If you are unsure with the information or a message you can always question it for clarity and if can’t determine the actual meaning we should refrain from making arguments.

6. Be careful with nice expressions

Phrases like “as everyone knows...”, “common sense tells us...” and similar phrases like that will probably make us think that the information that is told is most likely true and prevent us from questioning the information further. Although not all popular opinions are necessarily true. We should ignore those reassuring expressions and focus on the facts and reasoning that support arguments.

7. Recognize the factual

Sometimes we use emotional content by smoothing out words that are unpleasant to hear. We must recognize the factual use of the word euphemism and the expression it contains.

8. Look at the relatedness

Even though the sentence uses clear and accurate language, however, it can be misleading due to the inaccuracy of the suggestions given. Don't just understand facts but also relatedness and context

9. Understand the fact and opinions

When expressing an opinion it is sometimes misunderstood into fact. We must be able to distinguish and understand facts and opinions so, that there is no misunderstanding in the question or argument

10. Make a correct judgments

In using implied language can confuse the meaning of the sentence. Make correct judgments, don’t make judgments when comparisons are not clear.

11. Make valid arguments.

When we argue we should focus on the reasons and facts that support the arguments, not the person making the argument. Criticizing the person making the arguments, not the argument itself is called Ad hominem. When we argue we should focus on the subject and question the subject itself and not make comments or point out information that is not relevant to the argument such as, about the person’s appearance, personality, or flaws.

12. Think critically before jumping into the bandwagon (Ad populum)

We sometimes believe thoughts or opinions when it is believed by many people. Humans are social creatures and we always want to be accepted in society or belong to a certain group. And when many people believe in a certain argument, we will most likely believe it. An example that is very relevant is the cancel culture, where many people jump into the bandwagon to cancel someone without verifying on why he/she is canceled. We should be able to make valid arguments based on facts, not based on popularity.

13. Be aware of half-truths

Cherry-picking is the fallacy of selecting a small subset of data that supports your arguments while hiding or ignoring other data that contradict it. People may cherry-pick because they only want to present the argument that favors them. If you suspect anyone telling half-truths you should ask them to verify their information and ask them to tell the whole picture.

14. Avoid making hasty generalizations

Sometimes we are quick to draw a conclusion with very little information, for example, if we had a bad experience with a taxi driver, it doesn’t mean that all taxi drivers are bad. We should avoid making hasty conclusions because stereotypical conclusions are often false and misleading.

15. Make valid or relevant comparisons

In an argument, we should make relevant comparisons. We shouldn’t compare “apples and oranges” as they are completely different things. When making an argument make sure to compare “apples and apples”.

16. looking for new arguments to counter with

Occurs when an argument offers various false choices and requires that you choose one of them. This range is false because there may be other unwritten options which will only serve to weaken the original argument. If you admit to choosing one of these options, you accept the premise that those elects are indeed the only ones that are possible. if there are two options and you can show that one or the other must be logically true, then it is possible to argue that one falsehood logically contains the truth of the other. Looking for a point of view that contradicts the subject that expresses the existence of another election.

17. Use data with relevant and logical facts

Information provided by someone with high authority or has the support of a commendable and respectful person is often taken and acknowledged without seeing any chance of error in the information. However, the information provided is not always relevant and in accordance with logical facts to support an argument.

18. See the relationship between arguments and assumption

Someone often states their assumptions without caring about the truth. Look first at the arguments that are available in assuming and there is logical evidence.

I hope these tips and tricks help you to be a better critical thinker and help you identify and make arguments based on critical thinking. Being a critical thinker is not something that happens overnight, so keep and practicing and happy learning :).

Author: Niken Kendrix & Christy Febriana Iskandar

Source:

Business Communication 1. (2017). Tangerang: Prasetiya Mulya University.

Skillsyouneed.com. (n.d). Critical Thinking Skills. Retrieved from https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/critical-thinking.html.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-egocentric-4164279