by J. Jerrald Hayes | Feb 10, 2017 | Critical Thinking
If you ever watch Fox News this should come in handy. While I am sure all the everyone is guilty at some point of manipulating how data is displayed Fox New makes it a regular practice. How to Spot Visualization Lies Keep your eyes open. It used to be that we’d...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Feb 7, 2017 | • Politics, Cognitive Bias, Critical Thinking
Cognitive dissonance is the psychological theory developed by social psychologist Leon Festinger that describes how and why people to dig in their heels and hold on to their beliefs even when faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In fact the more people...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Feb 6, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Irrational Thinking, Science
The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934-December 20, 1996) was many things – a cosmic sage, voracious reader, hopeless romantic, and brilliant philosopher. But above all, he...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Feb 4, 2017 | Critical Thinking
A good video illustrating the danger of sharing information without fact checking and while there may be a real imbalance right to left this problem does go both ways so don’t think watch out. I would love to see a Progressive Democratic left that really was a...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Feb 4, 2017 | Critical Thinking
From the International Federation of Library Associations and...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Feb 2, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Science Denial, Skepticism
Six Ways to Debunk Any Conspiracy Theory Fighting conspiracy theories with reason and evidence on the Internet is often tiresome and irritating. It usually involves extreme details of some scientific, historical or technology topic and it takes a long time to learn...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Feb 1, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Science
So I was in a online debate (okay it was an argument) with a real kook today who had this elaborate New World Order theory he laid out with links to speeches, comedy routines, and YouTube videos to support his wild masterbation. Anyway he finished it off with this...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jan 28, 2017 | Critical Thinking
There is a great infographic/chart on how to have a rational discusioon over on Thought Catalog … Meanswhile over on Yahoo Answers answering the question What does it mean to have a “rational conversation”? we have this as the best answer Best...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jan 26, 2017 | Critical Thinking
I love collecting and exploring books, discussions, and infogrhics on logical fallacies and their use and just discovered this page I think is a pretty handy reference… Logical Fallacies Handlist This page is a resource for Doctor Wheeler’s students in...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jan 23, 2017 | Cognitive Bias, Critical Thinking, Irrational Thinking, Psychology, Science, Science Denial
Researchers Say They’ve Figured Out What Makes People Reject Science, and It’s Not Ignorance A lot happened in 2016, but one of the biggest cultural shifts was the rise of fake news – where claims with no evidence behind them (e.g. the world is flat...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jan 18, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Pseudoscience, Science Denial
The Fine Art of Sniffing Out Crappy Science Facts and figures are like cow pastures. Unless you squint, you can’t always tell how full of bullshit they are. Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin West, a pair of scientists at the University of Washington, think it’s...
by J. Jerrald Hayes | Jan 13, 2017 | Critical Thinking, Irrational Thinking
After reading a very funny but very apropos tweet from someone named Tina Dupuy I googled the name to see who she was and found this great comment by her on Facebook. This disregrad of expertise and expert opinion and it suplantation with “what I want to...
