Psych. Impediments to Cogent Reasoning Flashcards
Avoiding thoughts that are stressful by either not thinking about them or, more commonly, by thinking nonstressful thoughts instead.
Suppression
Instead of replacing the stressful thoughts with more benign ones, we change our interpretation of the situation to perceive it as less threatening.
Denial
Faithfulness or devotion to a person, country, group, or cause. (web)
Loyalty
This tends to keep our beliefs, and thus, our action, within the bounds of what society as a whole will accept.
Herd Instinct
The tendency of practices and beliefs to persist long after wherever conditions made them useful or sensible have disappeared.
Culture Lag
This natural tendency to identify with the ideas, interests, and kinds of behavior favored by those in groups with which we identify.
Provincialism
Thinking ill of others without sufficient warrant.
Prejudice
Making a judgment about individuals without first knowing them. (web)
Stereotypes
Others we can blame for the ills of the world, when in fact we ourselves may bear a large measure of responsibility.
Scapegoats
Leads people to perceive evidence and to judge arguments via an “us against them” or a “my right view against your wrong view” attitude.
Partisan Mind-set
Beliefs generally based on biased evidence or on a small or unrepresented sample. Evidence from which all negative cases have been removed.
Superstitions
Believing what we would like to be true, no matter what the evidence.
Wishful Thinking
Consciously believing what at a deeper level we know to be dubious.
Self-deception
Belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary. (web)
Delusion
Ignoring or denying unpleasant evidence so as to feel justified in doing what we want to do or in believing what we find comfortable to believe.
Rationalization
