“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Aristotle
I recently had a conversation with my mother about how to sift through information to make informed decisions. I find myself going back to basics these days and thought it might be worth sharing the process with others.
There is SO much information swirling around these days that it’s hard to keep straight and it’s hard to find the nuggets of truth. And frankly, it’s exhausting. But – it’s the world we live in and staying plugged in, staying current – these are all important parts of thinking and acting young.
Step 1: Separate Emotion
This might be the hardest part. It’s the difference between what I believe or what I feel and what I KNOW. Emotion has a place but it’s later in the process. Unfortunately, a lot of media and posts these days are crafted to elicit an emotional response. It’s how we get “hooked” on following a person or reacting to a message. So, examine how a message makes you feel and then try to deliberately set it aside.
Step 2: Examine Bias
“Everyone lives by selling something.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
Sadly, this fact is true of even our media sources these days. When we remember that everyone is selling something, it makes it easier to see how a message is crafted to manipulate us. This doesn’t mean the message isn’t fair or accurate. It doesn’t mean we don’t agree with it. It simply arms us to ask qualifying questions and dig to the root of the issue.
- Why is this person sharing this information?
- How are they trying to make me feel, think, act?
- Why do they want me to feel, think, act that way?
This approach applies to social media posts, news articles, marketing messages, magazines and television stories. Once you have a handle on bias, then you can move on.
Step 3: Research Facts
Fact: a thing that is known or proved to be true.
This is daunting in its own way. It’s an exhausting way to consume information, but it allows us to be educated and information before we make a decision. Let’s remember, fact and opinion/conclusion are not the same thing. It requires filtering and mentally assigning “labels”.
Example: It’s 78 degrees F outside right now with clear blue skies. It’s too hot to go for a walk.
- 78F = FACT (you have to apply common sense that it’s relative to the location of the person making the statement – but this is measurable)
- Clear blue skies = FACT (if you are in the same location, you can confirm this by going outside)
- Too hot = OPINION (this can change depending on who you are talking to. You may agree with them, but this does not make this thing FACT)
I often search out opposing perspectives to try to see where the overlap of agreed upon facts is.
Example: If a drug company is advertising a drug as a solution for something (bias), then I may search a watchdog group cautioning the use of the drug and side effects (bias). If both parties agree on some of the benefits and some of the risks, I’ll put those into the “fact” column in my head. Where they radically differ, I’ll generally put those into the “opinion” column.
Step 4: Layer in Experience
Now that you have a collection of facts, you can start to layer back in your experience. Be careful here. We have a tendency to broaden our “experience” by extension to others. Focus on what you KNOW or have decided as fact first hand.
I know or believe a thing because I know someone who knows or believes it.
This gets tricky again (did I mention this is ALL tricky?). More examples:
- The world is round = Fact. You didn’t prove it was round and you probably haven’t circumnavigated the globe, but there is sufficient evidence that the world is round that this goes into the “fact” column (unless you’re a “flat-earther” and then you’re probably disagreeing with a great deal more than this fact!).
- “My friend is a [insert profession] and says [insert thing] = ??.” This is that “experience by extension” that I caution you against. They could be saying facts, but it’s worth corroborating their experience with other sources.
When you take in data (facts) you have a gut reaction to it. Now is when you start to examine that gut reaction. If your first instinct is, “this doesn’t feel true” then do more research. If you feel “yea, this makes sense in the framework of other things I know”, then you can generally go with that. This step makes sure that we give ourselves opportunity to broaden our own perspectives, as well as trust our experience.
Honestly, when I get to this point, I often settle in with a conclusion of “gee, I’m just not sure”. That’s a perfectly legitimate and honest conclusion. We don’t have to force agreement or dissent if we don’t feel it. I just mark the topic mentally under “no conclusion” in my head.
Caveat: Science and Medicine
I have friends and family who are adamantly anti-vaccine. I’m adding this caveat in because it helps explain why this is such a tricky area. Science and medicine are based on theories, hypotheses, observations and conclusions. None of these are facts. They are BASED on facts (Example: 20% of subjects experienced a negative reaction) but the conclusion almost always contains some degree of conjecture.
It’s why one study says a glass of wine a night is good for you but another says it’s not. The conclusion has caveats or is examining a different facet of “good”. It may be good for cholesterol but not for blood pressure. You have to read the fine print when you’re dealing with science and medicine and decide for yourself.
I find critical thinking is useful in every facet of life. It may be a story a friend or co-worker relays. It may be deciding whether the latest and greatest anti-aging product really will work. It may be sifting through political positioning and social media.
This isn’t about telling you WHAT to think, but reminding you of the approach to draw your own well-informed conclusions. I’m working hard to strengthen my critical thinking “muscle”, I encourage everyone else to do the same.
