Two types of Opinion

➜Expression of taste➜Expression of judgment

“I love Lady Gaga!”

“The court finds Casey Anthony not guilty!”

“Lady Gaga is the greatest musician of all time!”

“I hate Casey Anthony!”

Opinions Can Be Mistaken

Taster’s Choice Study

Which coffee tastes best?

➜ Entitlement ∦ Correctness➜ Opinions can be influenced

Opinions on Moral Issues

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Thomas Jefferson

Even Experts Can Be Wrong

1st century-Trephination

1890-Koch1904-Hall

1922-Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ben Franklin

In ancient times, the medical opinion was that mental illness was caused by demons in the skull.

Inoculating people against disease was thought of as nonsense by Ben Franklin & the founders of Harvard.

Koch said he had the cure for tuberculosis but it made people sicker & some died.

Hall said when women think too hard they lose mammary functions, interest in motherhood & have a decrease in

fertility.

Thorotrast was created to outline organs so clearer x-rays could be taken. 19 years later it was

discovered that even small doses of Thorotrast cause cancer.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC bought 17 gold vessels from a 3500 year old Egyptian tomb. They were discovered to be fake in 1982.

1928-Thorotrast

Kinds of Errors

1. Errors common among all people by virtue of their being human

2. Errors with one’s individual habits of mind or personal attitudes, beliefs or theories

3. Errors that come from human communication and the limitations of language

4. Errors in the general fashion of age

ERROR #1

EXAMPLE: The tendency to perceive selectively or rush to judgment or oversimplify complex realities

Task: Say the color of the font the word is written in.

ERROR #2

EXAMPLE: The habit of thinking the worst of members of a group due to prejudice

List all stereotypes you have heard for these groups. Are they mostly positive or negative?

Group Stereotype

Caucasians

African Americans

Asians

Women

Muslims

Homosexuals

ERROR #3

EXAMPLE: expressing a thought/feeling inadequately & leading others to form a mistaken impression

ERROR #4

EX: Our grandparents accepted authority without question & we tend to question authority

Informed Vs. Uninformed Opinion

An informed opinion is based on careful consideration of the evidence

When we seek out the informed opinion, we: →broaden our perspective→consider facts/details we may not have thought of →decrease our chances of error

Critical Thinkers:→avoid the temptation of deceiving themselves into believing all of their opinions are well supported with evidence→develop the habit of checking the quality and quantity of evidence before forming an opinion→review their evidence before expressing an opinion

What Is Evidence?

How to Play:1. Draw papers to see the type of evidence your group will cover2. Make a skit that explains what the evidence is & shows it’s pros/cons3. Name the other team’s evidence by writing your group’s answer on paper4. Reveal answers when skits end and I ask for them

Scoring:•Guess a type of evidence correct and earn 1 point•Groups that guess wrong are disqualified immediately•When performing your skit, you receive 1 point per correct answer by the audience groups

TIE BREAKER RULES: If there is a tie in points after all groups perform, the groups will draw new evidence and do a tie-breaker round with an improv skit **same scoring rules apply

Goal: Earn the most points

TYPES of EVIDENCE

Personal ExperienceUnpublished ReportPublished ReportEyewitness TestimonyCelebrity TestimonyExpert OpinionExperimentStatisticsSurveyNaturalistic observationLaboratory observationResearch review

Evaluating Evidence

How To Avoid Bias When Evaluating Evidence➜Don’t approach your evaluation wanting one side to be right➜Don’t begin your investigation assuming that familiar view will prove correct➜Don’t look for evidence that supports the side of the issue you favor and ignore evidence that opposes it➜Don’t rate sources by how favorable they are to your thinking rather than by their reliability & the quality of their research➜Don’t be nitpickingly critical of evidence for views you oppose and uncritical of evidence for views you favor➜When you encounter evidence that opposes your bias, don’t begin arguing against it before you have completed examining it