UNDERSTANDING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN BELIEF PERSEVERANCE, CRITICAL THINKING & COMMON SENSE

According to (Douglas. 2000), belief perseverance is “when people form a belief based on initial evidence, the belief will be resistant to contradictory evidence, and when people form a theory based on erroneous evidence and later discover that the evidence is false, the belief often survives such discrediting” (p. 134). There are also different strategies that can be used to overcome belief perseverance. Two of these strategies include the use of:

1. Critical Thinking – This is when someone will choose to believe a certain thought because it is based on observations through environmental factors, specific data, or other factual evidence. Critical thinking usually lacks the bias that may normally be present within average home, school and/or social beliefs.

2. Common Sense – This is based on factual opinions of average people about a specific phenomenon. Normally, these opinions are considered factual because they are thought to be common knowledge among most members of a society, population or culture. This thought process is also not usually extremely jeopardized by prejudice or biased thinking.

There are also several times when people are unable to overcome belief perseverance. Two examples could include prejudice and religious beliefs that have been conditioned by respected loved ones or those that have been acquired through a lack of critical thinking and/or common sense. The negative consequences of this skewed belief system can create further issues and will depend on each individual situation. One example is if a Caucasian person chose to be prejudice against an Afro American by starting a physical fight with that person. The initial victim could then end up killing the person who chose to act out based on his or her prejudice beliefs. Therefore, the consequence of prejudice thinking in this particular situation would be premature death of the Caucasian.   

According to previous research, there are also many similarities and differences between common sense and science that are based on which area of psychology is being considered. One particular area that common sense does not play a huge role in is that of neurophysiology. Although, common sense is considered an extremely valuable attribute when applied to the areas of social psychology and social cognition. Common sense is also categorized in three ways which include “a set of shared fundamental assumptions,” “a set of maxims or shared beliefs,” and “as a shared way of thinking” (Fletcher. 1984. p. 1). These are viewed as three major similarities between common sense and science because this thought process is shared by many within a specific population, culture or society. Furthermore, three differences between common sense and science are as follows:

1. Common sense is based on only preconceived ideas while science acquires factual data that can support or dispute those initial ideas.

2. Common sense can include prejudice or biased thinking but scientific theories are designed after attempting to eliminate these potentially harmful factors.

3. Common sense can lack validity but science tries to reduce or eliminate this possible issue before sharing any newly acquired information with the general public.

References:

Douglas, N. (2000). Enemies of critical thinking: Lessons from social psychology research. Reading Psychology. Retrieved on September 8 2011 via the World Wide Web at http://web.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5040acc5-a3b0-42d6 911e-2250afb06064%40sessionmgr111&vid=2&hid=21

Fletcher, G. (1984). American Psychologist: Psychology and Common Sense. University of Waikalo Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved on September 8 2011 via the World Wide Web at http://contentasc.kaplan.edu.edgesuite.net/PS501_1004A/images/product/Psychology%20&%20Common%20Sense.pdf