Exercise #4

7 Barriers to Critical Thinking

Barrier 1-Misunderstanding what criticism is

Some people think that criticism is only used as an insult. However, I think there could be positive or negative criticism depending on the person’s tone and the words he uses. Because of misunderstanding the meaning of criticism, a lot of people consider criticism a bad thing.
For example, one day my friend showed me a project he is working on, so I was giving him my feedback as constructive criticism but he mistook it for me insulting his work which lead to us into an argument.

2- Over-estimating our own reasoning abilities
Sometimes we think we know it all and we never try to ask other about their opinion or feedback. This could have a negative impact, especially when dealing with people as a person would say few words and we think we understand what he means right away that we don't give him a chance to explain himself any further which results in misunderstandings.
For example, one day I went with my friends to play basketball and one of them did not know  basketball rules. So, I tried to explain them to him but he told me "I know the rules, it is an easy game and easy rules," after that when we started playing he did a lot of fouls and ruined the game.

3- Lack of methods, strategies or practice
A person's lack of experience or method to critical thinking might affect a negative effect on his decision making and it could be worse if it was combined with over-estimation of one's own reasoning as it would lead to ignorant arrogant decisions.
For example, a person who is new to business might make wrong decisions due to his lack of experience and lack of consultation with experts leading to bad business.


4- Reluctance to critique experts
Some people think that experts are always right so when they set with someone who is an experts in something they wouldn't disagree with what he is saying even if what he says contradicts their opinion or even common sense.
For example, one day I was watching a health program on TV with my friend and they showed a doctor saying that second hand smoking is not bad for people and my friend agreed to him saying that he is a doctor and he knows best.


5- Affective reasons
Sometimes our reasons will be driven by our emotions which blinds us from seeing the situation rationally.
For example, two of my friends once had an argument and during that day we were discussing where to have dinner and my two friends kept disagreeing on each other's suggestion due to their previous argument.


6- Insufficient focus and attention to detail
Not giving enough focus to an issue could lead to missing important factors leading to making bad decisions or judgments or redoing your work because you missed some details.
For example, once my friend told me he had tickets for a movie and invited me to go with him, but when we arrived to the cinema we noticed that we have missed our movie as we didn't check the time in the tickets it was 10 a.m. but we thought 10.p.m .