Don't Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in ThinkingDo you believe that you can consistently beat the stock market if you put in the effort? --that some people have extrasensory perception? --that crime and drug abuse in America are on the rise? Many people hold one or more of these beliefs although research shows that they are not true. And it's no wonder since advertising and some among the media promote these and many more questionable notions. Although our creative problem-solving capacity is what has made humans the successful species we are, our brains are prone to certain kinds of errors that only careful critical thinking can correct. This enlightening book discusses how to recognize faulty thinking and develop the necessary skills to become a more effective problem solver. Author Thomas Kida identifies "the six-pack of problems" that leads many of us unconsciously to accept false ideas: · We prefer stories to statistics. · We seek to confirm, not to question, our ideas. · We rarely appreciate the role of chance and coincidence in shaping events. · We sometimes misperceive the world around us. · We tend to oversimplify our thinking. · Our memories are often inaccurate. Kida vividly illustrates these tendencies with numerous examples that demonstrate how easily we can be fooled into believing something that isn't true. In a complex society where success--in all facets of life--often requires the ability to evaluate the validity of many conflicting claims, the critical-thinking skills examined in this informative and engaging book will prove invaluable. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
A Six Pack of Problems | 11 |
Weird Beliefs and Pseudoscientific Thinking | 25 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accurate actually alien asked astrology average behavior Believe Weird Things better biased breast implants cause chance claim cognitive cold reading confirming consider Culture of Fear Demon-Haunted World dence drug effect evaluate evidence example expect experiences eyewitness fact flip forecasting Fortune Sellers fund fundamental analysis Gilovich gremlin groupthink hallucinations happen hypothesis Ibid implants index fund indicates individuals intuitive Journal of Personality Judgment and Decision Loftus look Malkiel memory mental accounts Michael Shermer occur Paranormal patients percent performance Personality and Social Plous predict problem pseudoscience pseudoscientific psychic Psychology of Judgment random remember reported Repressed Memory result Schick scientific scientists Sherden Shermer Skeptical Inquirer Social Psychology someone Stanovich statistics stories Straight about Psychology strategies Superstition theory therapeutic touch there's Think about Weird Think Straight thought tion told typically variables want to believe York