NiemanLab: The fact-checker’s dilemma: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview. “Motivated reasoning is what social scientists call the process of deciding what evidence to accept based on the conclusion one prefers. As I explain in my book The Truth About Denial: Bias and Self-Deception in Science, Politics, and Religion, this very human tendency applies to all kinds of facts about the physical world, economic history and current events.”
Tag Archives: reason
UNC Offering Critical Reasoning MOOC
The University of North Carolina is offering a new MOOC on critical reasoning. “Each week, the course will introduce a different discipline—chemistry, history, psychology, law, literature, and American studies—and students will learn from UNC-Chapel Hill professors about how critical thinking skills can be applied in these areas. Through a mixture of weekly video lectures, practice quizzes and readings, students will receive the foundational knowledge to think critically in each discipline. At the end of each week, they will write an essay reflecting on the skills they learned and the importance of thinking critically in each discipline.”