BARRIERS TO

CRITICAL
THINKING

Presented by Ashley Layosa

 WYNTK ,
(What you need to know !)

For this lesson, you will learn about the hindrances or barriers to
critical thinking.

These barriers are habits, practices, and personality traits that

prevent us from seeing things in a fair and rational way, thus
preventing us from thinking critically

First, you need to know about bias.

 WYNTK ,
(What you need to know !)

BIAS
• Bias is a tendency to favour one thing over another.
Most of the barriers that we will discuss in this module create bias
or influence us to have irrational opinions about certain things
 FIRSTLY ,
LET'S DEFINE !

CRITICAL • is often used to mean "fault finding" or "negative".

Expressing adverse or disapproving comments or judgments or
involving an analysis of the merits and faults of a work of
literature, music, or art.
THINKING • the process of using one's mind to consider or reason about
something. Using thought or rational judgment; intelligent.

BARRIER • is simply something that stands in your way.

WHAT IS CRITICAL
THINKING?
 CRITICAL THINKING
Involves the ability to analyze and evaluate information,
arguments, and ideas in a logical and systematic way.
If you couldn't think critically, you might not make good
decisions.

Therefore, What barriers could possibly stop people from

thinking critically?
BARRIERS TO
CRITICAL
THINKING
let's break it down!

PERSONAL BARRIERS

SOCIAL BARRIERS

LOGICAL FALLACIES
PERSONAL BARRIERS
PERSONAL BARRIERS

• EGOCENTRISM
• This is the mindset in which an individual considers themselves to be
the center of everything, giving utmost importance to their personal
beliefs, emotions, and welfare.
• Can cause an individual to see and judge the world around him from a
biased personal point of view.

The following are some of the traits and actions that have links to
egocentrism :
EGOCENTRICISM

a. Self-righteousness
• is the belief of having higher or better moral standards than other
people. It provides a false sense of superiority over others. Self
righteous people tend to take the moral high ground or morally correct
position in issues in order to maintain a sense of moral superiority.

Self-righteousness can prevent us from being open-minded and

considerate towards others’ beliefs and ideas because those beliefs and
ideas are considered inferior.
EGOCENTRICISM

b. Hypocrisy
• is the act of claiming to have certain moral standards and beliefs while
displaying behaviours and actions that prove otherwise. Basically,
hypocrisy is doing something while claiming to believe in the
opposite.

For example, a person claims to care a lot about the environment but is
known to throw garbage in the streets.
EGOCENTRICISM

c. Saving face
• can be defined as trying to save one’s reputation after making a
mistake or trying to prevent others from noticing that a mistake has
been made.
An example of saving face is denying to have said something after being
proven wrong
Save face is being dishonest to others and to yourself, which can prevent
you from recognizing your mistakes and correcting them.
PERSONAL BARRIERS

2. RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
• is the tendency to react negatively to new ideas without giving fair
consideration. It can be caused by different factors including
intellectual laziness or the unwillingness to engage in intellectually
challenging tasks such as analyzing new concepts.
Another probable reason is COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.
PERSONAL BARRIERS

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
• is the discomfort that is felt when faced with a new beliefs or ideas
that contradict pre-existing ones.
For example, if a person has always disliked pop music but hears a new
pop song that appeals to him, he feels stress or discomfort because a long-
held belief is being challenged.
PERSONAL BARRIERS

Cognitive dissonance can be a good thing because it can force us to re-

evaluate our beliefs or values that may be flawed and come up with better
ones.
However, it can also be a barrier to critical thinking if we just go back
to our comfort zone because we can’t handle the stress or discomfort.
PERSONAL BARRIERS

COMFORT ZONE

• is the mental state where we feel secure and in control. Some call it
their “happy place” or the state of mind without any negativity
PERSONAL BARRIERS

3. PREJUDICE and STEREOTYPE

• PREJUDICE is an opinion about a person, thing, or subject that is not

based on critical thinking. Prejudices are usually negative opinions
that cause us to discriminate against people with different
nationalities, races, religions, genders, etc.
PERSONAL BARRIERS

Example: some people have negative opinions against homosexuals

because of their gender preference

Prejudices are almost always unfair and irrational. Making decisions

based on prejudices is always a bad idea, it keeps us from seeing the
reality of the situation.
PERSONAL BARRIERS

• STEREOTYPE is a generalized description given to members of a

particular group. Stereotypes disregard people’s individual traits and
picture them based on the group that they belong in.
Stereotyping can be positive or negative.

Example: In western cultures, Asians are all good at math.

Assumption that people with tattoos are criminals.
PERSONAL BARRIERS

4. EMOTION
• are a part of being human. They are a big factor in our decision
making. It’s normal to favour things that make us happy and avoid
things that make us sad or scared. However, if we look at things at a
critical thinking point of view, emotions are not always a good thing
Strong emotions can cloud our judgement. Strong ones create biases
which can make us jump to conclusions.
SOCIAL BARRIERS
SOCIAL BARRIERS

• SOCIAL CONDITIONING

• is a process in which individuals are trained to act in a manner that is

deemed proper by society that they belong in.
The training done does not mean formal training.
• It is a collection of acts or experiences that enables individuals to
learn cultural norms such as values, traditions and superstitions
.
For example, in the Filipino culture, men are expected to have short hair
and women are expected to have long hair. It is not mandatory but the
majority of the population follows this norm because they were
conditioned to do so.
SOCIAL BARRIERS

social conditioning can become a barrier to critical thinking because

people tend to follow norms without question and without subjecting them
to critical thought.
Individuals who act out of social conditioning can become blind to flaws
that these norms may have.

.
For example, slavery is a cruel and inhumane practice that is outlawed in
modern culture but used to be the norm in many civilizations. In the past,
people were socially conditioned to believe that it’s ok to buy, sell, and
keep people as slaves. It may be obvious now that slavery is cruel and
inhumane but in the past, social conditioning prevented people from
realizing it.
SOCIAL BARRIERS

2. SOCIAL COMFORMITY
• Social conformity is something that we do willingly.
• Is the act of following the standards that we observe in groups that we
belong to. Social conformity is more commonly known as “going with
the flow” or “following the crowd.”
Conforming to social standards and following fads without carefully
considering
. its possible outcomes can lead to bad decisions.
example: If a new smartphone comes out and all of your friends has one,
you would want to have one for yourself. If you let social conformity
guide your decision making, you would get the phone no matter what. But
if you stop to think about it in a rational and critical manner, you may
realize that the new phone’s features are not that much different than the
one that you have right now and the new features aren’t really worth the
cost of a new phone
SOCIAL BARRIERS

3. SOCIOCENTRISM and ETHNOCENTRISM

• Sociocentrism is a mindset or a point of view in which an individual
judges the rest of the world based on the rules and values of his or her
own social group.
• Ethnocentrism is pretty much the same thing except it is focused on
one’s ethnic group

.
SOCIAL BARRIERS

sociocentric and ethnocentric thought does not conform to critical thinking

or logic. A sociocentric or ethnocentric person may readily dismiss foreign
ideas and practices as wrong or inferior because he or she is judging it
from the perspective of his or her own group

.
For example, in some cultures, it is normal to cook and eat certain types of
insects. A person from a western or westernized culture may see this as
disgusting because it is not a normal practice in his or her own cultural or
ethnic group. However, when critical thinking is applied to the matter, an
outsider may realize that when prepared properly, insects can be as safe to
eat as beef or pork or poultry.
SOCIAL BARRIERS

4. AUTHORITY
• Authority figures have a huge influence in an individual’s values and
beliefs. As children we look to our parents as role models for morality.
As adults, sometimes, we seek expert advice when making important
decisions. It is normal for a person to see someone with more
knowledge and experience as a role model.

.
SOCIAL BARRIERS

Most of the time, this is a good practice. We learn many important skills
and ideas from authority figures like our parents, teachers, and elders in
our community. Society relies on authority figures for leadership and
guidance. For this reason, most groups have a leader or a central figure

.
SOCIAL BARRIERS

On the other hand, blind loyalty and excessive admiration for a person of
authority can become a personality cult. In a personality cult, people obey
and believe their leaders without question.
example, a well known celebrity like an actor or an athlete runs for public
office and wins because the people’s admiration for him or her as an
athlete or an actor was carried over to this new endeavour, which is
politics. If we think about it critically, we may question this person’s
qualifications but halo effect prevented that. Admiration got in the way of
critical thinking. Halo effect is evident in advertising where celebrities use
their popularity to convince people to buy products. Because people
admire them, they assume that these celebrities are right about the
products that they are endorsing
SOCIAL BARRIERS

THE HALO EFFECT

• is a type of bias in which our general impression of a person,
especially a celebrity, irrationally affects our opinion of that person’s
specific qualities. If a person is well known for a particular trait or
talent, like beauty or singing, people tend to assume that that he or she
is also good in other fields
SOCIAL BARRIERS

5. SUPERSTITION
• is a belief or a practice that is based on the supernatural. Every culture
in the world has superstitions and most of they can be traced to a time
when people did not have proper understanding of science and the
natural world.

.
For example, ancient people used to think that lightning and thunder are
created by gods such as Zeus and Thor. People also used to believe that
diseases, especially epidemics were created by gods to punish them
SOCIAL BARRIERS

• For example, luck is superstitious belief that people use to make sense
of random occurrences. Luck has no basis in science unlike gravity or
friction but a lot of people still take it in consideration when making
decisions. It can be dangerous because it can make people take risks
that would otherwise be deemed irrational.