TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................2
BARRIERS TO CRITICAL THINKING..........................................................................................................3
1. Egocentrism...............................................................................................................................3
1.1 Self-interested thinking:-...................................................................................................3
1.2 superiority bias..................................................................................................................3
2. Sociocentrism............................................................................................................................3
2.1 group bias..........................................................................................................................3
2.2 Conformism: -....................................................................................................................4
3. Unwarranted Assumption/ Stereotype/....................................................................................4
4. Relativistic Thinking...................................................................................................................5
4.1 subjectivism.............................................................................................................................5
4.2 cultural relativism....................................................................................................................5
4.3 moral relativism.......................................................................................................................5
5. Wishful thinking.........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................8

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 INTRODUCTION
Critical thinking means thinking clearly and intelligently. More precisely, critical thinking is
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. And governed by
clear intellectual standards that can be used to identify a critical thinking from the uncritical.
Critical Thinking is not only required by an individual in the streams of academics and the
business world but also in life as well. It is quite substantial and helps us attain the realms of
success in all aspects of life. it comprises of the factors such as decision making, maintaining
healthy personal and professional relationships, problem-solving capacity, and having a
detailed and thought out view over any situation. It is rightly said that it is one of the
vital skills required to attain success and growth in life.

Even though critical thinking is very important we see uncritical thinking as a very common
term. The reason is that there are different factors that impede(limit) critical thinking like :
Lack of relevant background information, poor reading skills, bias, prejudice, superstition,
egocentrism (self-centered thinking), sociocentrism (group-centered thinking), peer pressure,
conformism, provincialism (narrow, unsophisticated thinking), narrow-mindedness, closed-
mindedness, distrust in reason, relativistic thinking, stereotyping, unwarranted assumptions,
scapegoating (blaming the innocent), rationalization (inventing excuses to avoid facing our
real motives) etc...

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 BARRIERS TO CRITICAL THINKING
1. Egocentrism
Egocentrism refers to someone's inability to understand that another person's view or opinion
may be different than their own. It represents a cognitive bias, in that someone would assume
that others share the same perspective as they do, unable to imagine that other people would
have a perception of their own.

Egocentrics are selfish, self-absorbed people who view their interests, ideas, and values as
superior to everyone else’s.

Egocentrism can manifest itself in a variety of ways. Two common forms this are self-
interested thinking and the superiority bias.

1.1 Self-interested thinking:- Self-interest is defined as being focused on yourself or

putting yourself at an advantage. Self-interested thinking, however understandable it
may seem, is a major obstacle to critical thinking. Everyone finds it tempting at times
to reason that “this benefits me, therefore it must be good”; but from a critical
thinking standpoint, such “reasoning” is a sham. For example Most university
professors strongly support tenure, paid sabbaticals, low teaching loads, and a strong
faculty voice in university governance because these will promote their interest.
1.2 superiority bias:- also called illusory superiority is a condition of cognitive
bias wherein a person overestimates their own qualities and abilities, in relation to the
same qualities and abilities of other people

2. Sociocentrism
sociocentrism can hinder rational thinking by focusing excessively on the group.
Sociocentrism can distort critical thinking in many ways. Two of the most important are
group bias and conformism.

2.1 group bias:- is the tendency to see one’s own group (nation, tribe, sect, peer group,
and the like) as being inherently better than others.
 Is the tendency for people to give preferential treatment to others who belong
to the same group that they do.

Such thinking is extremely common throughout human history and across cultures. Most
speople absorb group bias unconsciously, usually from early childhood. It is common, for

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example, for people to grow up thinking that their society’s beliefs, institutions, and values
are better than those of other societies.it is a very unhealthy thinking that leads to major
conflicts.
2.2 Conformism: - refers to our tendency to follow the crowd. it is a term used to
describe the suspension of an individual's self-determined actions or opinions in favor
of obedience to the mandates or conventions of one's peer-group, or deference to the
imposed norms of a supervening authority.
Authority moves us. We are impressed, influenced, and intimidated by authority, so
much so that, under the right conditions, we abandon our own values, beliefs, and
judgments, even doubt our own immediate experience

In general the following features can be observed in the most notable cases of sociocentrism.
 They have a narrow-minded perception of reality.
 They cultivate an almost arrogant self-referencing.
 The Other –anyone who is different– is observed with suspicion and mistrust.

 They are convinced they are in possession of the truth, that they are right.

3. Unwarranted Assumption/ Stereotype/

An assumption is something we take for granted, something we believe to be true without

any proof or conclusive evidence. Almost everything we think and do is based on
assumptions. The assumptions may or may not be correct, but without evidence they are
really only guesses. We make different decisions based on a very reasonable assumptions like
coming to class based on the class schedule. Here we come to class because we assumed that
the class will be held based on the schedule. This kind of assumptions is reasonable. But on
the other hand unwarranted assumption are unreasonable.

Unwarranted Assumption: is a belief without “good reason.” one of the most type of
Unwarranted Assumption is stereotype.

Stereotype: is assuming that all people within a group (e.g., sex, race) share all the same
qualities; assuming that a particular individual that belongs to a group has certain qualities
simply because they belong to that group.

When we form an opinion of someone that is based not on his or her individual qualities but,
rather, on his or her membership in a particular group, we are assuming that all or virtually all

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members of that group are alike. Because people are not identical, no matter what race or
other similarities they share, stereotypical conceptions will often be false or misleading.

Hasty Generalization (type of stereotype):- drawing conclusions about a large group from a
small sample. For example When I was young, my dad and brothers never helped with the
household chores. All men are useless in the house.

4. Relativistic Thinking
Relativism is the view that truth is a matter of opinion. There are two popular forms of
relativism: subjectivism and cultural relativism.
4.1 subjectivism:- the view that truth is a matter of individual opinion; what one thinks is
true is true for that person . Truth exists independent of what anyone believes. For example,
suppose Abdella believes that abortion is wrong and Obang believes that abortion is not
always wrong. According to subjectivism, abortion is always wrong for Abdella and not
always wrong for Obang. Both beliefs are true – for them.
4.2 cultural relativism.:-  the view that what is true for person A is what person A’s culture
or society believes to be true. In other word cultural relativism is the view that what is true
for person A is what person A’s culture or society believes is true.this idea defines moral
principles as being rooted in the beliefs of a particular culture, it identifies right and wrong in
terms of the practices of a specific group of people
4.3 moral relativism ;- comes in 2 forms moral subjectivism and cultural moral relativism

4.3.1 moral subjectivism:- is the view that what is morally right and good for an individual,
A, is whatever A believes is morally right and good.

 Right and wrong is determined by what you -- the subject -- just happens to
think (or 'feel') is right or wrong.

4.3.2 cultural moral relativism:- the view that what is morally right and good for an
individual, A, is whatever A’s society or culture believes is morally right and good.

 Right and wrong is determined by the particular set of principles or rules the
relevant culture just happens to hold at the time.

Cultural moral relativism is a very popular view. There are two major reasons people seem to
find it so attractive.

 nature of moral disagreement:- . In ethics there is widespread disagreement, the

disagreements often go very deep, and there seems to be no rational way to resolve

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 many of them. What this shows, some people conclude, is that there is no objective
truth in ethics; morality is just a matter of individual or societal opinion.
 value of tolerance:- Cultural moral relativism seems to imply that we must be tolerant
of other cultures’ moral beliefs and values. If culture A believes that polygamy is
wrong, and culture B believes that it is right, then culture A must agree that polygamy
is right for culture B, no matter how offensive the practice may be to culture A.

Despite their attractiveness it also have a major problem Think about another area in which
there is deep, pervasive, and seemingly irresolvable disagreement: religion. People disagree
vehemently over whether God exists, whether there is an afterlife, and so forth; yet we do not
conclude from this that there is no objective truth about these matters. It may be difficult to
know whether God exists. But whether he exists is not simply a matter of opinion. Thus, deep
disagreement about an issue does not show that there is no objective truth about that issue.
Second, cultural moral relativism does not necessarily support the value of tolerance.
Relativism tells us that we should accept the customs and values of our society. Thus, if you
live in an intolerant society, relativism implies that you too should be intolerant.

5. Wishful thinking
Wishful thinking refers to a state of believing something not because you had good evidence
for it but simply because you wished it were true.It is the desire for something to be true is
used in place of/or as evidence

Wishful thinking is a barrier to critical thinking because you cant know whethervor not you
think outside the box unless you accept that you are in it. It gives people an ‘if it was meant
to be it would happen’ attitude and depletes their ownership of their lives.

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 CONCLUSION
critical thinking means thinking clearly and intelligently. we found many peoples with
uncritical thinking in our day to day life which is due to barriers of critical thinking which
have been discussed earlier. Thus factors affect our perspective for things. which directly or
indirectly affects our social and professional life . Therefore We need to identify and avoid
those barriers in order to be reasonable thinkers.

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 REFERENCES
1. Logic module
2. Quora digest
3. internet