P.Mean: The importance of being self-critical (created 2011-05-05). News: Sign up for "The Monthly Mean," the newsletter that dares to call itself average, www.pmean.com/news.

There was an interesting, but rather rare bit of self-examination on the web recently. Most people (myself included) use the web to make the world aware of our brilliant insights. But in a blog post critical of the thinking behind the anti-vaccination movement, one writer took a step back and wondered aloud

"Actually, I'm constantly asking myself when I'm writing one of these logorrheic gems of analytic brilliance if I really am being analytically brilliant or am I being selectively analytically brilliant in order to bolster my pre-existing beliefs and values? In other words, am I doing from the other viewpoint the same things that anti-vaccine zealots, for example, do when they cherry pick and misrepresent studies in order to support their beliefs that vaccines cause autism?" David Gorski, www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=12092.

You have to admire someone like this, and I passed along my compliments in the comment section of that blog.

Whenever new research appears demonstrating a pattern of flawed logic or a cognitive bias, people should be thinking "Uh-oh! Have I ever fallen into that trap?" Instead, they point and laugh and say "Aren't those people so stupid!" or they roll up their sleeves while saying "Aha! Another weapon to assist me on my crusade for scientific truth and justice."

I had alluded to this solipsistic perspective in the quote in the March-April issue of The Monthly Mean, which I repeat here.

When I talk to people about statistics, I find that they usually are quite willing to criticize dubious statistics--as long as the numbers come from people with whom they disagree. Joel Best, More Damned Lies and Statistics, page XI.

There's no such thing as critical thinking without first being self-critical

This page was written by Steve Simon and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Need more information? I have a page with general help resources. You can also browse for pages similar to this one at Critical Appraisal.