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FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS
When people encounter facts that conflict with their assumptions, critical thinkers accept the facts and adjust their feelings. But intuitive thinkers dismiss the facts — the scientific consensus and reliable sources — and cherry-pick alternative facts to retro-justify their feelings. They are not conscious of this, so they believe they are thinking critically by “doing their own research”. That is why teaching facts alone is not enough. We must also teach the fundamental skills needed for critical thinking. It is more effective to teach students these skills
before they are exposed to misinformation — prebuking, inoculation theory — rather than debunking
after they’ve fallen for misinformation. So these skills should be taught early and exercised often.
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Media Literacy
- News vs Editorial. News is facts about what actually happened. Editorial is opinions about what is good or bad and speculation. Most “news” shows are actually editorials.
- Credible Sources. Compare influencers vs reporters, social media posts vs Wikipedia, pundits vs experts, partisan news (Fox, MS Now, etc.) vs centrist news (Reuters, etc.), science institutions vs political think tanks, politicians vs fact checkers, medical doctors vs self-proclaimed nutritionists, etc.
- Detect the Motive of the author/speaker. Are they trying to sell you something, trick you, or convince you to vote for/against something?
- Types of Scams include: Phishing for passwords or credit cards, Exploitation (catfishing, grooming), Counterfeit products, Charity fraud, Crypto scams, Malware downloads (viruses), IRS impersonators.
Suspicious Clues:
- Biased Language is loaded words like: budgets “cut” vs “slashed”, prices “increased” vs “exploded”, crime “went up” vs “out of control”, etc.
- Sensationalized Headlines for fake news and clickbait use shock and exaggeration to provoke your fear or anger.
- Lookalike URLs/Email trick you with misspellings (mircosoft.com ≠ microsoft.com), compounded names (instagram-rewards.com ≠ instagram.com), subdomains (www.roblox.gamehacks.com ≠ roblox.com), etc. Any link may be mislabeled, like “instagram.com” linking to a completely different site.
- Manipulated Images/Video/Audio may have signs of AI, filters, or photoshopping. Images might be cropped to hide important context. Video and audio might be slowed or sped up. Or media may be misrepresented from other events.
- Unknown Senders are suspicious. Gmail and general email addresses are less trustworthy than domains of organizations.
- Urgency is suspicious, usually a scam if it’s warning you to do something quickly, like click a link before your account is banned.
- Too Good to be True. Get rich quick. Unrealistic promises.
- Flattery is suspicious. A stranger telling you you’re special and give many compliments is probably catfishing.
- Switching Platforms is dangerous, like if a stranger asks you to switch to Snapchat, WhatsApp, Signal, etc., they want to lure you somewhere that your parents cannot check.
How to Verify:
- Cross-check other Sources like centrist news sites or Wikipedia.
- Look up the Author/Organization on Wikipedia or Google to see their reputation.
- Image Search on Google to see if it is has been altered or if it’s from a different event.
Standards: CCSS grades 6-12 to assess the credibility of sources, and grade 8 to evaluate motives. Four states recently passed laws to increase media literacy, which are still in the planning stages.
Recommend: Cover the above details in grades 5?-12.
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Fact / Opinion
- Facts are objective. They can be proven true or false.
- Opinions are subjective. They are never right or wrong.
- Opinions may be debated. to persuade others. Opinions may be important, like morals.
- Opinions may be supported. by objective criteria, but that doesn’t make something “objectively” good or bad.
- Agreeing doesn’t mean Fact. Just because you agree with an opinion does not make it an objective fact.
- Disagreeing doesn’t mean Opinion. Just because you don’t believe a fact does not make it a subjective opinion.
- Popular Opinions aren’t Facts. Even if most people share the same opinion, that does not make it an objective fact.
- Incorrect Facts aren’t Opinions. Even if a fact is proven false, it is still objective, a false fact, not a subjective opinion.
- Predictions are Opinions. Predicting a future outcome is a subjective guess, even professional opinions. Only after the future has passed does the prediction become objectively true or false.
While fact/opinion is an easy concept to recite, it’s surprisingly hard to apply in real life. Studies show most US adults cannot distinguish political facts from political opinions, barely better than guessing.
Standards: CCSS grades 6-8 Language Arts History Literacy:
RH.6-8.8. Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.
Recommend: Grades 4?-12, with practice throughout the year.
Resources: FactOpy.com
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Correlation / Causation
- Causation: Controlled experiments prove A causes B. (Smoking causes lung cancer.)
- Correlation: A and B both caused by X. (Ice cream sales and drowning correlate, but the cause is heatwaves.)
- Coincidence: A and B align by random chance. (Margarine sales appear to correlate with divorce rate, but only if limited to Maine 2000-2009.)
Our brains evolved to look for patterns of cause-effect, even if it’s not there.
Standards: CCSS Math 9-12 Statistics & Probability:
S-ID.C.9. Distinguish between correlation and causation. (Not in NGSS)
Recommend: Teaching this with the scientific method, grades 7?-12.
Resources:
ThinkKeen.com,
Spurious Correlations
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Fallacies
- Distinguish flawed reasoning from sound reasoning, especially flawed arguments on your own side so you can be more persuasive.
- Causation: Post Hoc, Cum Hoc, Single Cause, Regression Fallacy, Appeal to Probability/Possibility, Gambler’s Fallacy, Hot Hand Fallacy
- Distortion: Cherry Picking, Hasty Generalization, Texas Sharpshooter, Spotlight Fallacy, Straw Man, Hollow Man, Slippery Slope, Black or White / False Dilemma, False Equivalence, Faulty Comparison, False Balance, False Analogy, Perfect Solution Fallacy, Genetic Fallacy, Contextomy, Irrelevant Conclusion
- Evasion: Moving the Target, Motte and Bailey, Definitional Retreat, Equivocation, Invincible Ignorance, Appeal to Ignorance, Ad Nauseam, Proof by Assertion, Proof by Verbosity, Begging the Question, Argument by Gibberish, Rationalizing, Special Pleading, No True Scotsman, Shifting the Burden of Proof
- Irrelevance: Appeal to Nature, Appeal to Tradition, Red Herring, Tu Quoque, Appeal to False Authority, Bandwagon Fallacy, Appeal to Common Sense, Argument from Incredulity, Divine Fallacy, Ad Hominem, Tone Policing, Guilt by Association, Appeal to Motive, Furtive Fallacy
- Emotional: Appeal to Emotion/Fear/Anger/Guilt/Pity, Argument by Emotive Language
Standards: CCSS grades 9-10 Language Arts:
RI.9-10.8 & W.9-10.9b. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
SL.9-10.3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.
Recommend: Grades 5-12
Resources: Foolacy.com
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Cognitive Biases
- Reiteration Effect: We tend to believe something when we hear it repeated often, like ads and disinformation campaigns.
- Confirmation Bias: We accept ideas that support our beliefs, but are more skeptical of contradictory ideas.
- False Consensus Effect: We assume most people agree with us, especially if we don’t interact with outsiders.
- Dunning-Kruger Effect: As beginners, we tend to overestimate our skills and knowledge.
- Barnum Effect: We think vague descriptions about us are very accurate, like horoscopes and psychic readings.
- Just-World Hypothesis: When bad things happen to others, we assume they deserved it, because we want to believe the world is fair.
- Bandwagon Effect: We tend to follow the crowd, adopt popular opinions, wear trendy fashion, etc.
- Out-Group Homogeneity: We know that people in our own groups are diverse and have different opinions, but we assume people in other groups are all alike (other nations, races, religions, political parties).
- Self-Serving Bias: We take credit for our successes but blame others for our failures.
- Fundamental Attribution Error: We assume other people make mistakes because they’re lazy, dumb, or incompetent, but our own mistakes are for external reasons.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: We have trouble letting go of things that we’ve already invested in, even if it is irrational.
- Halo Effect: We are easily influenced by attractive or famous people, and we overestimate quality based on irrelevant positive attributes.
- Hindsight Bias: We assume an outcome was predictable, but only after it occurs. “I knew it all along!”
- Optimism Bias: We take big risks because we assume only others may fail or get injured.
- Negativity Bias: We remember negative experiences more than positive ones, like criticisms more than compliments.
- Spotlight Effect: We self-consciously assume others pay close attention to our appearance and actions.
- Availability Heuristic: Our estimates are skewed by how much something is in the news or is easy to see.
- Placebo Effect: If we want a medicine or treatment to work, we convince ourselves that it does.
Standards: None
Resources: Your Bias Is
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Scientific Method
- Sample Size must be large to reduce random coincidences.
- Control Group required to compare treatment vs no treatment.
- Randomized placement in control group or treatment group to avoid bias.
- Representative Sample needed so other factors don’t skew results.
- Placebo is needed because people may imagine they are being affected.
- Blinded means subjects don’t know if they got the placebo. Double-blinded means experimenters do no know either, to avoid bias.
- Base Rate comparison of before and after, to account for normal changes.
- Statistical Analysis to determine if the changes were just random chance.
- Peer Reviews help scientists check for mistakes and verify results.
Quality of Evidence:
- Human Trials are best for medicine and psychology. Animal trials are not as good (what’s true for mice isn’t always true for humans). In vitro trials are weakest (what occurs to cells in test tubes doesn’t necessarily happen in living bodies).
- Surveys are okay for opinions, but weak evidence for anything else. People may lie or exaggerate, intentionally or not.
- Objective Measurements are better than subjective assessments.
- Theoretical arguments are just guesses, hypotheses. Experiments are required for real evidence.
Incentives:
- Scientists don’t get rich from funding. They seek fame from new discoveries and disproving other scientists.
Counterexamples:
- Pseudoscience uses little to no scientific method, often just theoretical.
Debunk: Astrology, Fortune Telling, Mind Reading, Cryptozoology, Ufology, Numerology, Bermuda Triangle, Flat Earth, etc.
- Alternative Medicine is pseudoscience. It sounds like science, but lacks real evidence, and vague on details like “toxins” and “energy”.
Debunk: Herbal Supplements, Essential Oils, Chiropractic Spinal Adjustments, Cupping Therapy, Acupuncture, etc.
- Junk Science has sloppy procedures, usually motivated by politics or profit.
- Health Misinformation are popular myths contradicted by the evidence.
Debunk false claims about: Organic foods, Gluten, GMOs, MSG, Seed Oils, Raw Milk, Probiotics, Vitamin A for Eyesight, Vitamin C for Colds, Drink 8 glasses of Water daily
Without these details, students have no criteria to distinguish anecdotal evidence, junk science, pseudoscience, and alternative medicine from quality science. They may call scientists “biased” if they don’t understand all the controls to eliminate bias. Learning science facts is not enough to unlearn pseudoscience, alternative medicine, and health misinformation.
Standards: NGSS grades 6-8 MS-PS2-5 mentions “experimental design” for physical sciences, focusing on observation and empirical measurements. But no other aspects of the scientific are mentioned. Florida is the only state that teaches the difference between science and pseudoscience.
Recommend: Grades 8?-12
Resources: ThinkKeen.com
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Conspiracy Theories
Validation Test:
1.
Is it easy to keep secret?
- How many people must be in on the secret?
- Are they in the same group or rivals?
- Are they experts at keeping secrets, like the military or intelligence?
(e.g., NSA Global Surveillance)
- Has a whistleblower ever refused to conspire?
- Has anyone shown evidence of bribes or coercion?
- Is the evidence easy to cover up?
- How can the conspirators be both smart and dumb — smart enough to execute an elaborate scheme, but so dumb that they make obvious mistakes?
2.
Do they have a realistic reason?
- Is there an easier way to achieve the same goal?
- Do they have a clear motive, or are multiple conflicting motives suggested?
- Is it worth the effort?
- Is it probable, not just possible?
Debunk: Flat Earth, Faked Moon Landings, Vaccine Conspiracies, 5G, Chemtrails, Fluoridation, Area 51, JFK assassination, etc.
Standards: None
Recommend: Grades 8?-12
Resources: ThinkKeen.com
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Strategy & Decision Making
- Compromise is necessary. Complex issues rarely have perfect solutions, so we much compare different imperfect solutions.
- Analyze Pros & Cons
- Analyze Risks & Rewards
- Analyze Short-term Costs & Long-term Benefits. e.g., Practice now (the cost) to be talented later (the benefit).
- Quantitative vs Qualitative. e.g., Quantitative decisions include credit card debt, extended warranties, gambling, and savings accounts. Qualitative decisions include choosing a college, or when should police call off a high-speed chase that might injure/kill innocent bystanders.
- Moral Dilemmas. Are rules absolute? Is it okay to steal if it saves a life? Is it okay to lie to someone for their own good? (Santa Claus won’t bring you gifts if you’re naughty.) When should social media platforms ban a repeat offender? What is “fair” for whom?
- Principles vs Pragmatism is at the core of most moral dilemmas. e.g., Is it more important to punish criminals or reform them so they don’t commit more crimes?
- Unintended Consequences from good intentions. The Cobra Effect: Paying a bounty for snakes led to profiteers breeding more snakes.
- Game Theory teaches strategy, probability, risk and reward. It forces you to consider how other people would react, and anticipate unintended consequences.
- Riddles, Trick Questions, Brain Teachers teach you to look past first assumptions, dismiss irrelevant information, and reinterpret meanings.
Debates reduce issues to right and wrong, which is a false dichotomy and inherently divisive. Practical solutions require analysis and compromise.
Standards: CCSS includes statistics and probability to make quantitative decisions. But CCSS/NGSS mention no analysis for decision making, nor morality, ethics, or fairness.
Recommend: Grades 2?-12
Resources: Great Moments in Unintended Consequences
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Manipulation Tactics
Conspiracy Theories, Pseudosciences, Alternative Medicine, False Advertising:
- Unfalsifiable Claims. Contradictory evidence is fake/biased. Supporting evidence is suppressed. Safety data is never good enough. Everyone is paid off or brainwashed.
- Absolute Certainty. No need for evidence because they’re “obviously” right. “What if” is accepted as fact.
- Implausible. No explanation given, or it defies science. Miracle cures. Massive conspiracy of rivals with zero leaks. Overly complicated plots. They mostly try to disprove the establishment than to prove their claim.
- Evil Villains. Politicians plot to kill their citizens or destroy their own country. Scientists suppress science to get “funding”.
- Fringe “Experts”. The majority are just gullible sheep. Scientific consensus is just “dogma”. Only the fringe are “independent thinkers”. “Do your own research.”
- Anecdotes & Cherry Picking. Statistics and data taken out of context or misunderstood. They ignore dosage for safety limits, or confuse different chemicals.
- Gibberish & Technobabble. Unnamed “toxins”. Non-scientific “energy”. Unclear definition of “artificial” and “chemicals”. Accept “may/might/could” as “does”. Misuse or invent scientific terms.
- Fallacies
Scams:
- Urgency to act immediately (click a link, buy now, etc.).
- Scare Tactics that you’ll lose your money or account, or be arrested.
- Too Good to be True. Get rich quick.
- Flattery that you are special.
Political Propaganda:
- Scapegoating. Blaming all problems on minority groups (race, ethnicity, religion).
- Fear Mongering. “Our way of life is being destroyed!”
- Patriotism. “We love our country but they are trying to destroy it.”
- Populism. Promising to help the common people defeat the elite establishment.
- Repetition of claims until you believe it (the Reiteration Effect).
Emotional Manipulation & Cults:
- Love Bombing is friendly community and flattery to draw you in.
- Negging & Insinuation are undermining your self-confidence.
- Gaslighting is lying to make you doubt your own eyes and experiences.
- Boundary Testing is gradually testing your compliance to normalize abuse.
- Isolation to separate you from friends and family so they can’t protect you, and so you have no one else to turn to.
- Guilt Tripping is trapping you in obligation.
- Silent Treatment is shunning you as punishment for defiance.
- Financial Control so you cannot afford to leave.
Analyze manipulative characters: The sly fox in fables; Mother Gothel in Tangled; Iago, Cassius, and Marc Antony in Shakespeare.
Standards: None
Recommend: Grades K-12
Even 5-year-olds understand how story characters trick others.
Resources: ThinkKeen
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Marketing Tactics
- Natural vs Artificial. The wording on labels is only loosely regulated, so it is often misleading: Natural, Real, Fresh, Homemade, Farm style, Harvest Bounty, No Chemicals, No artificial..., No added sugar. (Appeal to Nature)
- Old-Fashioned. Old imagery makes it look like it’s not from a modern industrial factory. (Appeal to Tradition)
- Lifestyle Ads show someone you want to be, someone who looks glamorous, sexy, in love, cool, fun, wealthy, sporty, etc. (Appeal to Envy, Halo Effect)
- Feel Good Ads show laughing, smiling, children, family, cute animals, etc., to associate their product with happy feelings. (Appeal to Emotion, Halo Effect)
- Activism Ads make the company look like they have progressive values: environmentalism (greenwashing), social justice (redwashing), anti-racism, anti-sexism (purplewashing), LGBTQ rights (pinkwashing/rainbow-washing), anti-ableism, body positivity, animal rights (humanewashing). (Appeal to Emotion)
- Endorsement Ads feature a celebrity or attractive model. (Halo Effect, False Authority)
- Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) is used in political attack ads. (Appeal to Fear)
Marketers know how to manipulate us to spend and vote against our own interests. Knowledge is good defense.
Standards: None
Recommend: Grades 4?-12
Resources: Foolacy, Health Food Rebrands
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Lying with Statistics
Misleading Figures:
- Large Percent to hide Small Difference
- Large Quantity to hide Small Percent
- Missing Comparison or Base Rate
- Quantities without Per Capita ratios comparing groups of different sizes
- Meaningless Percents without specified denominators
- Miscategorized Data by combining or splitting groups to skew results
- Cherry Pick data out of Contradictory Context
Misleading Charts:
- Non-Zero Base of Y-axis to exaggerate differences
- Excessive Scale of Y-axis to make differences look smaller
- Two Different Scales on Y-axis
- Styled Graphics to distort apparent size
Standards: None
Recommend: Grades 6?-12
Resources: ThinkKeen Statistics, ThinkKeen Graphs
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Fiction vs Reality
- Underdog always wins
- Longshots always succeed
- Hero never gets hurt or pays any consequences
- Enemy has no virtue
- Perfect solutions with no compromises
- Conspiracies abound
- Everyone lives happily ever after
Stories are written to be exciting, not realistic. The tropes are built on fallacies (Neglect of Probability, Black or White Fallacy, Perfect Solution Fallacy, Just-World Hypothesis) and may foster Magical Thinking and a Conspiratorial Mindset.
Standards: None
Recommend: Discuss how each story is unrealistic.
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Social Emotional Learning
- Critical Thinking is analytical and conscious.
- Intuitive Feeling is impulsive and subconscious.
Self-awareness of your feelings is necessary to separate intuition from analysis, opinion from fact, and fallacies from logic.
Standards: None
Recommend: Grades K-12