Clarity of thought and critical thinking is a lost art not engaged in by many. Most people think with their emotions, take the easy route, or are chiefly concerned with their ego when they face an issue that requires laborious thought and honest scrutiny. The education system has failed multiple generations by not teaching critical thinking. Educators who decide the curriculum have to take responsibility for not giving young people the tools needed to make wise life decisions. The self and societal wounds inflicted as a result fall in part at the feet of these alleged “educators”. Below are 16 quick tips to enhance clarity of thought, followed by several related posts that go into more detail.
Questions to ask of medical studies and claims:
----Who funded the research? Can the conclusions reached be therefore tainted?
----Was
the research published in a professional scientific journal? There has been a
tremendous proliferation in recent years in the number of “scientific” journals
that are not peer-reviewed and the alleged researchers only have to pay a hefty
sum to get published.
----How
many people did the study include? Some papers have only about 25 while others
have thousands.
----Was
a “control group” used? Meaning one half of the participants received the actual
medication being studied while the other half unknowingly received a placebo.
----What
was the wording of the research question? Clever pollsters and researchers know
how to frame a question to get the desired answers.
----Is
the evidence presented and claims made for a product based solely on
testimonials and anecdotes? Or on double-blind, randomly controlled trials?
----When
a TV news reporter is attempting to explain the results of a medical study in a
two minute segment – Is he/she adequately explaining it? Is jargon being used
that the average person would not know the meaning of? Are there other studies
that back this one up? Is the reporter sensationalizing the details of the
study? Is there a sly attempt to communicate the results to fit the reporter’s
own point of view?
Questions to ask
of advertisements:
----Fifty
per cent less fat than what? The competition’s similar product? The firms
original product?
----Happy
Cereal with milk provides all the breakfast nutrition you need – How much is
from the milk and how much strictly from the cereal?
----Leading
scientific reports conclude that this supplement will burn off the fat – Were
they sourced from genuine scientific journals or pseudo publishers that anyone
can buy in to?
----Am
I primarily being influenced by the beautiful actors and upbeat music, instead
of the cold hard facts?
Questions to ask
of yourself:
----When
I hear or read reasonably sounding conflicting points of view, do I just choose
to adopt the view of the source I had previously liked and agreed with? Or will
I take the time and effort to objectively evaluate and sift through the information?
----When
I hear or read a point that obliterates my arguments, do I immediately revert
to a primal reaction of ego defensiveness? Is this actually about my pride? Or
do I honestly and humbly try to get to the bottom of the issue?
----Is
my priority in life being popular or on good terms with friends and family, so
I just go along with their opinions? Am I afraid of being prickly and disagreeable? Am I just being politically correct? Even though the position taken conflicts
with my values?
----Define
your terms. Know the meaning of the specific words you are discussing. This
excerpt from Diane Swanson’s Nibbling On
Einstein’s Brain (Annick Press) provides
an example:
“Even
something as obvious as traffic deaths needs defining before it can be
researched. Find out how your health department, highway department, coroner’s
office, local and regional police departments, and insurance companies define
road traffic deaths. Do some definitions include only victims found dead on the
road, while others also count those who died in hospitals within a week? A
month? An Year? What about people with traffic injuries that later led to death
by heart attacks or pneumonia? If a helicopter crashed on the highway, would
the deaths of its occupants count as road traffic deaths? Imagine the confusion
if researchers comparing the road traffic deaths in two cities relied on local
police reports that used different definitions.”
----Last but definitely not least, the benefits of rigorous regular exercise on brain health and clarity of thought can never be overstated:
“There are
many ways exercise improves cognitive health. Aerobic exercise (also known as
cardio) raises your heart rate and increases blood flow to your brain. Your
increased heart rate is accompanied by harder and faster breathing depending on
the intensity of your workout. As your increased breathing pumps more oxygen
into your bloodstream, more oxygen is delivered to your brain. This leads to
neurogenesis—or the production of neurons—in certain parts of your brain that
control memory and thinking. Neurogenesis
increases brain volume, and this cognitive reserve is believed to help buffer
against the effects of dementia.”
Related Posts
30 Prying
and Probing Questions To Bolster Critical Thinking http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2016/10/30-prying-and-probing-questions-to.html
9 Basic Ways
We Fool Ourselves Into Believing Things That Aren’t True http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2018/04/9-basic-ways-we-fool-ourselves-into.html
Pseudo-Health: 6 More Ways Liars and Hustlers Use
Confirmation Bias To Dupe The Public
http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2018/02/pseudo-health-6-more-ways-liars-and.html
6 Ways Liars
and Hustlers Use Confirmation Bias To Dupe The Public http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2018/02/6-ways-liars-and-hustlers-use.html
9 MORE
Common Characteristics of People Who Get Duped http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2017/08/9-more-common-characteristics-of-people.html
10 Common
Characteristics of People Who Get Duped http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2017/08/10-common-characteristics-of-people-who.html
17 Simple
Ways To Spot Fake News: Instructions For The Left and The Right http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2018/04/17-simple-ways-to-spot-fake-news.html
How To Avoid
Bad Medical Advice: A Basic Guideline http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2016/05/how-to-avoid-bad-medical-advice-basic.html
Pseudo-Health
& Snake-Oil: 14 Examples of Faulty Thinking http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2016/06/pseudo-health-snake-oil-14-concise_22.html
Photo: https://opportunitymarketing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Consumers-MIND-LR.jpg
Jerry De Luca is a Christian freelance writer who loves perusing dozens of interesting and informative publications. When he finds any useful info he summarizes it, taking the main points, and creates a (hopefully) helpful blog post.
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