Intro

Question 1

Uncritical Thinking

Answer 1

Automatically believing what you read or are told without pausing to ask whether it is accurate, true or reasonable.

Question 2

Uncritical Thinking

Answer 2

When we take things at face value without pausing to consider whether it is sensible or justified.

Question 3

Critical Thinking

Answer 3

Setting out actively to understand what is really going on by using reasoning, evaluating evidence and thinking carefully about the process of thinking itself.

Question 4

Scepticism

Answer 4

Not automatically accepting something you hear, read or see as true.

Question 5

Objectivity

Answer 5

Trying to understand something from a more neutral perspective, rather than relying on a single opinion or the first piece of information that comes to hand.

Question 6

Become Better Sceptic, Ask 4 Questions

Answer 6

1. Why should I trust this claim? 2. Why does the person making this claim believe it – or want me to believe it? 3. What else has been said, written or reported about this? 4. Do I know enough to answer all of the above questions confidently?

Question 7

Slow Down

Answer 7

Critical thinking cannot happen in a rush. Before you do anything else, you need to take the time to engage your slow, considering mind rather than relying on instinct.

Question 8

Bias

Answer 8

Approaching something in a one-sided way that creates a distorted account of the way things actually are.

Question 9

Unconscious Bias

Answer 9

When someone’s opinions or decisions are distorted by factors that they are not even aware of.

Question 10

Conscious Bias

Answer 10

When someone deliberately presents a one-sided view of something, or explicitly holds a one-sided opinion about something.

Question 11

Confirmation Bias

Answer 11

The universal human tendency to use new information only to confirm existing beliefs, rather than seeking to improve and clarify your understanding.

Question 12

WYSIATI

Answer 12

What You See Is All There Is: A phrase used by psychologist Daniel Kahneman to describe the human tendency to pay attention only to what is immediately obvious, and to neglect the hidden complexities that exist in most situations.

Question 13

Survivorship Bias

Answer 13

The tendency to use new information obly to confirm existing beliefs, rather than seeking to improve and clarify your understanding, failing to consider the bigger picture in which the vast majority of all cases are failures.

Question 14

Dogmatism

Answer 14

The claim that certain principles or ideas are both absolutely true and immune to any form of critical scrutiny or discussion.

Question 15

Attention vs Distraction

Answer 15

The art of allocating not just time but focused engagement to the task in front of you, while shutting out other tasks and irrelevant information.

Question 16

Reasoning

Answer 16

Thinking about things in a sensible or logical way, and then presenting this thinking so as to permit meaningful debate, disagreement and collaboration. Explicitly presenting a line of reasoning may be enough for something to qualify as an argument, if the conclusion is self-evident from the context.

Question 17

The purpose of critical thinking

Answer 17

Critical thinking helps us to search for the best account we can find of the way things actually are.

Question 18

Metacognition

Answer 18

Thinking about thinking itself: the higher-order skills that enable me to successfully continue learning, improving, and adapting.