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Critical Thinking: Comparing information to personal experience or belief

You're watching a video lecture of your favorite communication class. The professor describes a theory and some research findings. You hit pause for a moment and think about it. The theory and research don't match your personal experience. What are your options? How do you proceed?

  • Here are some options...
    • Discount the theory and research entirely because science is no more valid than your own perspective.
    • Look further into the theory and research to find out whether...
      • the methods and measures were reliable and valid.
      • the researchers interpreted the results and theory in an accurate and logical manner.
      • the theory and research did not consider variables or contexts that are unique to your own situation. This could be a chance to propose new research and contribute to our body of knowledge.
    • If the evidence and interpretation supporting the theory and research looks reasonable, consider whether it actually applies to your situation
      • Are you different than the people in the studies in a way that would change the results? For example, a lot of psychology research is based on testing hundreds or thousands of college students. Is there a chance that your brain physiologically doesn't function in the same way as other college students' brains? Or, might the theory be about the developmental abilities of five-year-old children while you're a 20-year-old young adult?
      • Is the theory based on retro video games while you're thinking about modern video games that are substantially different?
    • If the research looks well-done, and it should apply to your situation, consider whether your understanding or perception is incorrect.
      • Did you misunderstand the notion of probability and inferential statistics? This is the notion that the results portray the general trend across a large group of people. Individual people fit that trend to varying degrees, some more, some less. Not everyone who smokes gets cancer. Not everyone who has cancer is a smoker.
      • Did you correctly understand the variables in the theory or research? Perhaps there's a study that shows political advertising has a particular effect on people. You think something is off because you can't recall a time when political advertising changed your attitude about a candidate. Yet, if you look more closely, you might find that the study wasn't about explicit attitudes. Perhaps it was about implicit attitudes or priming effects.
      • Could it be that your perception of your personal experiences is inaccurate? Crime investigators have said that eye witnesses can be quite unreliable. They only see one side of a story, not the actual truth. And from that one side, they often see things that are not really present or don't see things that are present.
      • Could it be that your memory of your personal experience is inaccurate? Along the same lines, even if we have an accurate perception of what happened, it is common for us to forget things, have distorted memories, or have false memories.
      • Could it be that we've been told inaccurate information by others?
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