01/09/2018

A Neuroscientist on How to Think Critically

In confusing times, this is a skill we all need to practice more often

Q: What’s your most crucial advice in today’s confusing news climate?

A: Find one or two legitimate news sources you trust, ones that are run by professional journalists and editors. If you encounter a claim and the only place you find it is on Facebook, or written on the side of a bus, the chances that it is true are very small. Also, if it is a claim with evidence, ask yourself if the evidence is even relevant. USA Today ran a story that there were more airplane crashes in 2014 than in 1960. Therefore, it is unsafe to fly these days, right? Wrong. There are vastly more flights these days than in 1960. The relevant statistic is what percentage of flights crash, or — even better — how many fatalities are there per million passengers (or per thousand miles flown).

Q: How do you personally decide what’s true and what’s not? Is there a mental checklist you run through or specific questions you ask yourself when you’re evaluating information?

A: 1. I believe that there is a hierarchy of news sources. At the top are things like BBC, NPR, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal. At the bottom are that guy standing on a street corner downtown with a wooden sandwich board over his shoulder and a megaphone, TMZ and unsourced Facebook posts. When it comes to scientific and medical claims, I first look to see if there’s been a meta-analysis (a study that brings together data from different labs and experiments). Then, I look to see if the claim was published in a reputable peer-reviewed journal. Scholar.Google.com helps to winnow down such search results.

2. I check for plausibility. Seventeen billion people in the world lack internet? No, there are only about 7.5 billion people in the world. If I give my money to you, you can double it every month for three years? Wildly implausible (and work it out — that would come to $68 billion).

Please click here to read the complete article from Thrive Global.