America Needs a Crash Course in Critical Thinking
Students who took a history course that focused on debunking frauds and misconceptions were less likely to accept…
Browsing Tag
Critical Thinking
15 posts
Linguistic Myths and Adventures in Etymology
The folk wisdom built up around common English expressions is often wrong, but it can be fun ferreting out the real origins.
The Brain-Focusing Power of the Lab Coat
Need to pay close attention to a tricky task? Try slipping on a simple white lab coat.
Numerology Doesn’t Know the Score
Various ways of assigning numbers to events, people, and actions is an ancient parlor game, but let’s not take it beyond that.
No Debate: Kids Can Learn By Arguing
Columbia professor Deanna Kuhn says teachers should foster some debate to help kids learn the lost skill of thinking critically.
Critical Thinker Explains Skepticism vs. Cynicism
Professional skeptic D.J. Grothe explores the difference between skepticism and cynicism and describes how fooling some of the people some of the time is a bad idea all of the time.
Conversion Therapy Fails to ‘Pray Away the Gay’
Reparative or conversion therapy's efforts to "pray away the gay" come a cropper when examined with a skeptical eye.
Psychic Detectives Have a Perfect Record
The idea that legions of psychics are helping police solve crimes around the world is based on, well, nothing.
Analyzing Culture with Google Books: Is It Social Science?
OPINION: Discovering fun facts by graphing terms found among the 5 million volumes of the Google Books project sure is amusing — but this pursuit dubbed 'culturomics' is not the same as being an historian.
Understanding Popular Uses of Percentages
While "figures lie and liars figure," that's no reason not to pay attention to some basic facts about common numerical comparisons.