Barriers to critical thinking

thumb|James Montgomery Flagg's famous "[[Uncle Sam" propaganda poster, made during World War I]] Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented. Propaganda can be found in a wide variety of different contexts.

thumb|alt=See caption|An African-American man drinking from a Racial segregation in the United States|racially segregated water cooler marked "Colored", in [[Oklahoma City ]] Discrimination is the process of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, usually in a way that it deprives them of their legal or human rights. The group may be such as race, gender, age, class, religion, disability or sexual orientation. Discrimination typically leads to groups being unfairly treated on the basis of

Explaination of events to untrue causes

thumb|upright=1.35|A typical 19th-century phrenology chart: during the 1820s, phrenologists claimed the mind was located in areas of the brain, and were attacked for doubting that mind came from the nonmaterial soul. Their idea of reading "bumps" in the skull to predict personality traits was later discredited. Phrenology was first termed a pseudoscience in 1843 and continues to be considered so.

thumb|upright|An 18th-century Dutch engraving of the peoples of the world. thumb|A stereotypical caricature of a [[villain (i.e. generic melodramatic villain stock character, with handlebar moustache and black top-hat), particularly popular in early-20th-century silent films and melodramas and popularized by Snidely Whiplash]] thumb|Police officers buying doughnuts and [[coffee, an example of perceived stereotypical behavior in North America]] In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about ever

thumb|Mr. Prejudice, painted by Horace Pippin in 1943, depicts a personal view of race relations in the United States. Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived social group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification of another person based on that person's perceived personal characteristics, such as sex, gender, gender identity, beliefs, values, social class, friendship, age, disability, religion, sexuality, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, culture, complexion, beauty, height, b

Chauvinism ( ) is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes it as a form of "excessive and unreasonable" patriotism and nationalism, a fervent faith in national excellence and glory.

Ignorance is a lack of knowledge, information and understanding. Deliberate ignorance is a culturally-induced phenomenon, the study of which is called agnotology.

false or misleading information presented as news

thumb|The Fanatics of Tangier by Eugène Delacroix, [[Minneapolis Institute of Arts]] Fanaticism is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal or an obsessive enthusiasm. The political theorist Zachary R. Goldsmith provides a "cluster account" of the concept of fanaticism, identifying ten main attributes that, in various combinations, constitute it: messianism, inappropriate relationship to reason (irrationality), an embrace of abstraction, a desire for novelty, the pursuit of perfection, an opposition to limits, the embrace of violence, absolute certitude, excessive passion, and an attract

A fallacy is the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning in the construction of an argument that may appear to be well-reasoned if unnoticed. The term was introduced in the Western intellectual tradition by the Aristotelian De Sophisticis Elenchis.

Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied shared social consensus) to be far outside the mainstream attitudes of society. It can also be used in an economic context. The term may be used pejoratively by opposing groups, but is also used in academic and journalistic circles in a purely descriptive and non-condemning sense.

thumb|Illustration for John Milton's [[Paradise Lost by Gustave Doré (1866). The spiritual descent of Lucifer into Satan is one of the most famous examples of hubris.]]

mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time

tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses

thumb|Man in the Moon|Interpretations of the random patterns of craters on the Moon. A common example of a perceptual bias caused by [[pareidolia.]] Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is inaccurate, closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, or a belief. In science and engineering, a bias is a systematic error. Statistical bias results from an unfair sampling of a population, or from an estimation process that does not give accurate results

form of argument and an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not presented by that opponent

application of different sets of justifications for situations that are essentially the same

logical fallacy that, since proposition has not yet been proven false, it must be true

thumb|300px|Anti-intellectualism contrasts the reedy Scholarly method|scholar with the bovine boxer; the comparison epitomizes the populist view of reading and study as antithetical to sport and athleticism. Note the disproportionate heads and bodies, with the size of the head representing mental ability and the size of the body representing physical ability. ([[Thomas Nast)]] Anti-intellectualism refers to a range of attitudes, characterized by skepticism, mistrust or criticism of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism. It is commonly expressed as questioning the value or relevance of

informal fallacy involving falsely limited alternatives, when in fact there is at least one additional option

feeling of fear spread among a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society

thumb|Sonderaktion 1005 was a Nazi project with the explicit goal of hiding or destroying any evidence of the [[mass murder committed under Operation Reinhard. This was one of the earliest attempts at Holocaust denial, taking place while the genocide of the Jews was still ongoing. Scholars consider denial to be an integral part of genocide itself.]] thumb|The Lost Cause of the Confederacy is a negationist ideology which falsely claims that the spread of slavery was not the central cause of the [[American Civil War.]] thumb|The Iğdır Genocide Memorial and Museum in [[Turkey promotes the false n

type of fallacy, where a proposition is assumed as a premise, which itself needs a proof and directly entails the conclusion

Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality. George Orwell coined the term doublethink as part of the fictional language of Newspeak in his 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Confabulation is a memory error consisting of the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage (especially aneurysm in the anterior communicating artery) or a specific subset of dementias. While still an area of ongoing research, the basal forebrain is implicated in the phenomenon of confabulation. People who confabulate present with incorrect memories ranging from subtle inaccuracies to surreal fabrications, and may include confusion or distortion in the temporal framing (timing, seque

tendency to perceive past events as more predictable than they actually were at the time

media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports

thumb|Anti-denialist banner at the 2017 Climate March in Washington, D.C.

exaggerated or irrational thought pattern involved in the onset and perpetuation of psychopathological states

human behavior pattern in which an individual or group facing increasingly negative outcomes from a decision, action, or investment nevertheless continues the behavior instead of altering course

failure in thought to bring together both positive qualities and negative aspects of people into a cohesive whole

form of incorrect argument in natural language

performing an action considered bad

deductive argument that is invalid due to faulty reasoning, regardless of the truthiness of the conclusion

website that deliberately publishes hoaxes and disinformation

thumb|Stephen Colbert coined the term "truthiness" on his political satire show [[The Colbert Report.]] Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts. Truthiness can range from ignorant assertions of falsehoods to deliberate duplicity or propaganda intended to sway opinions.

in religion and philosophy, the act of believing in or accepting something outside the boundaries of reason

Suggestibility is the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others. One may fill in gaps in certain memories with false information given by another when recalling a scenario or moment. Suggestibility uses cues to distort recollection: when the subject has been persistently told something about a past event, his or her memory of the event conforms to the repeated message.

rhetoric used to influence an audience

pattern of favoring members of one's in-group over out-group members

thumb|Illustration by Peter Newell for the poem "The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven" ([[Fables for the Frivolous) by Guy Wetmore Carryl.]]

phrase originating from goal sports, now describing by metaphor a kind of logical fallacy or debate tactic

cognitive bias of assuming the situation is a zero-sum game

tendency to favor inaction over action, and to judge harmful action as worse than inaction

undisclosed negative fact about someone

Dishonesty is acting without honesty. The term describes acts which are meant to deceive, cheat, or mislead.

commonly used phrase used to propagate cognitive dissonance

continued belief in a debunked theory

set of symptoms experienced by those who participate in or have left certain religious groups and belief systems

bias or perceived bias involving the slanting and altering of information to make a political position or political candidates seem more attractive

theory within social psychology that people have several underlying needs that can be satisfied by the defense and justification of the status quo

Legal term for avoiding liability

deductive fallacy

In epistemology (theory of knowledge), a self-evident proposition is a proposition that is known to be true by understanding its meaning without proof, and/or by ordinary human reason.

Poorly informed people who vote in elections