A belief that is taken for granted, 16--18; conscious, 17; unwarranted, 17-18
Critical thinking
The general term given to a wide range of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed to effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments and truth claims, to discover and overcome personal prejudices and biases, to formulate and present convincing reasons in support of conclusions, and to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to believe and what to do, 1-2, 222--223; barriers to, 11--20; benefits of, 8--11; standards of, 2--8
Egocentrism
The tendency to see reality as centered on oneself, 12--14
Group bias
The tendency to see one's culture or group as being superior to others, 14--15
Herd instinct
The tendency to conform, often unthinkingly, to authority or to group standards of conduct and belief, 15--16
Inconsistency
A fallacy that occurs when an arguer asserts conflicting or contradictory claims, 177--178, 188; logical versus practical, 4
Irrelevance
Lacking pertinence to the subject at issue. In logic, a statement, A, is said to be irrelevant to another statement, B, just in case A provides no evidence either for or against B, 3--4, 140, 142, 159
Logical inconsistency
Asserting or believing statements that cannot all be true at the same time, 4--5
Practical inconsistency
Being hypocritical or failing to practice what you preach, 4--5
Relevance
Pertinence to the subject at issue. In logic, a statement, A, is said to be relevant to another statement, B, just in case A provides evidence for or against B, 3--4, 222-223, 140--142, 159
Self-interested thinking
The tendency to accept and defend beliefs that accord with one's own self-interest, 12--13
Self-serving bias
The tendency to overrate oneself, 13--14
Sociocentrism
Group-centered thinking, 14--16, 23
Stereotypes
Generalizations about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to all or virtually all members of the group, often without regard to the accuracy of the attributions, 17, 23
Unwarranted assumption
A belief that is taken for granted without sufficient reason or justification, 17--18, 23
Wishful thinking
Believing that something is true because you wish it were true, 20, 23
