Transcript Chapter 6 Evaluate the Credibility of Claims and Sources

© 2016 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 6
Evaluate the Credibility of Claims
and Sources
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& GITTENS
© 2016 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Learning Outcomes
• List the characteristics that make a person
or source making claims about a given
topic a trustworthy source of information
and advice about that topic
• Explain how to decide which claims
standing on their own, absent reasons or a
credible source, should be believed and
which should not
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Learning Outcomes
• Explain how to evaluate the plausibility of
a claim independently
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Chapter Opening Video
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Assessing the Source—Whom
Should I Trust?
• Claims without reasons
• Cognitive development and healthy
skepticism
• Authority and expertise
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Claims Without Reasons
• Argument - Combination of a claim and
the reason(s) given to support that claim
• Memory can be influenced by heightened
states of emotion
• When a claim cannot be evaluated the
question becomes trust related
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Cognitive Development and Healthy
Skepticism
• Trust of authorities is connected to one’s
maturation
• Strong critical thinkers:
– Value context and perspective
– Understand that reasons, perspectives, and
theories are superior to other information
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Levels of Thinking and Knowing
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•
•
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•
•
•
Sages
Truth-seekers
Relativists
Collectors
Feelers
Trusters
Touchers
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Authority and Expertise
• The word authority is ambiguous and
vague
• Characteristics of a trusted source
– Learned and experienced
– On-topic, up-to-date, and capable of
explaining
– Unbiased and truthful
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Authority and Expertise
– Free of conflicts of interest, and acting in the
client‛s interest
– Money subverts objectivity
– Constrained
– Informed about the case at hand
– Mentally stable
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Discussion Question
• Disinterested party - Individual or a group
that does not stand to benefit from the
resolution of a dispute
– How can you tell if a person who is offering
you advice is a disinterested party?
• Discuss examples of when a person had
represented themselves as a disinterested party,
but turned out to have an interest in the outcome
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Assessing the Substance—What
Should I Believe?
• Personal muck and gunk monitor
• Self-contradictions and tautologies
• Marketing, spin, disinformation, and
propaganda
• Slanted language and loaded expressions
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Personal Muck and Gunk Monitor
• Healthy sense of skepticism is the best
defense against false or misleading claims
• A strong critical thinker would respond to
claims by asking probing questions
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Self-contradictions and Tautologies
• Self-contradictory statement
– Sentence that is false because of the
grammatical construction and the meanings of
the words used
• Tautology: Statement that is necessarily
true because of the meanings of the words
• Individuals can be misled by empty
tautologies hidden as informative facts
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Marketing, Spin, Disinformation, and
Propaganda
• People with ulterior motives can make
unsubstantiated claims
• Skepticism is not cynicism
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Slanted Language and Loaded
Expressions
• Evaluation of claims that use language
that carries a positive or negative
emotional charge must be done with care
• Political attack ads are offensive
– Combine emotional messages with
misleading claims
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Independent Verification
• Can the claim be confirmed?
• Can the claim be disconfirmed?
• More than a healthy sense of skepticism
only
• Independent investigation and the Q-ray
bracelet case
• Suspending judgment
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Can the Claim be Confirmed?
• Approaches to confirming a claim
– Finding confirmatory information
– Assessing the consistency of the claim
• Drawback of seeking confirmation
– Claim may not be true
• Finding confirmatory evidence better than
deciding the plausibility of a statement
based on no independent information
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Can the Claim be Disconfirmed?
• Challenging to disconfirm
• Urban legends endure no matter what
investigative findings reveal
• Skeptic is asserting uncertainty about
uncertainty about the truth of the matter
• Conspiracy theorist must do more than
discredit all other known, plausible, or
possible versions of events
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Can the Claim be Disconfirmed?
• Falsity of a claim can be established
• When the claim has been proven to be
incorrect, some people may not accept the
evidence
– Skeptics
– Conspiracy theorists
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More than a Healthy Sense of
Skepticism Only
• Web pages and blogs can be posted by
reliable experts or by unscrupulous people
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Independent Investigation and the
Q-ray Bracelet Case
• Q-Ray bracelets have been marketed and
sold to people seeking relief from chronic
pain
• Investigation established that the bracelet
has a placebo effect
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Suspending Judgment
• Judgments in context of uncertainty are
unavoidable
• Best judgment about the plausibility or
implausibility of some claims may be to
make no judgment at all
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Sketchnote Video
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