Deck 12: Skepticism: Becoming Critical Thinking Speakers and Listeners

Question 1

True believers

A) willingly accept claims by authorities or valued sources without question
B) are individuals who exhibit a highly negative attitude; they are the naysayers who find fault with the beliefs of others
C) are evidence-driven
D) frequently change their minds on controversial issues

Answer 1

A

Question 2

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." This means that

A) a few vivid examples are sufficient to prove your claim
B) a few amazing examples are sufficient to prove your claim
C) even a thousand testimonials asserting a cancer cure would be insufficient to prove such a claim
D) evidence must be so conclusive that the claim is certain to be true.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

You're the leader of the Interstellar Dark Beer Drinking Doomsday cult. You predict that the world will end when consumption of dark beer declines by 5% or more in a year. Consumption declines 7%, but the world does not end. When this fact is pointed out, your response is, "Members of the IDBDD drank mass quantities of dark beer, so they saved the world from extinction, proving the validity of my teachings." This is an example of

A) data-driven belief
B) cynicism
C) rationalization of disconfirmation
D) plausibility

Answer 3

C

Question 4

"According to recent studies, taking 500 mg of calcium per day improves bone mass by 5%, and taking 1000 mg of calcium per day improves bone mass by 10%. Even though the studies haven't been done yet on higher doses of calcium, it makes sense to take 5000 to 6000 mg of calcium per day to get even better results in bone mass." This claim is principally based on

A) wishful thinking
B) plausibility
C) probability
D) certainty

Question 5

A cynic is someone who

A) blindly accepts the opinions of authority figures
B) looks for the good in others
C) is a true believer
D) looks to tear down the beliefs of others but rarely if ever offers a belief of his or her own to defend

Question 6

Based on data from the Hubble telescope, astronomers now estimate the age of the universe to be between 8 and 10 billion years old, not 15 billion as previously thought. This is an example of

A) the built-in error correction function of skepticism
B) rationalization of disconfirmation
C) confirmation bias
D) the Law of Truly Large Numbers

Question 7

You challenge a speaker to prove his claim that owning handguns prevents home invasions. The speaker responds, "Prove it doesn't." This is an example of

A) accepting the burden of proof
B) shifting the burden of proof
C) cynicism
D) none of the above

Question 8

Generalizing from a highly unusual event is an example of

A) ignoring the Law of Truly Large Numbers
B) arguing from mere possibility
C) arguing from plausibility
D) a and b

Question 9

When a speaker asserts that an event or phenomenon is "impossible," that speaker is demonstrating

A) cynicism
B) skepticism
C) argument from probability
D) none of the above

Question 10

To be an open-minded person you must

A) entertain any and all claims made
B) never reject any claim, no matter how improbable
C) follow where the evidence leads
D) all of the above

Question 11

Claims that rest on plausibility alone

A) may initially seem strong but can turn out to be wildly incorrect
B) are relatively weak claims
C) have only a moderate burden of proof compared to claims based on probability
D) all of the above

Question 12

Skepticism is persistently finding fault with the beliefs and opinions of others.

Question 13

Claims based on plausibility require you to make a logical case for your claim even though the evidence may not be substantial.

Question 14

The Heaven's Gate cult returned a telescope to the store where it was purchased because when members looked through the telescope they could see the Hale-Bopp comet but they couldn't see a spaceship trailing behind it. They deduced that there must be something wrong with the telescope. This is an example of rationalization of disconfirmation.

Question 15

James Randi investigated 105 faith healers and found every one of them to be a fake. No one was cured of any organic disease or affliction. Given this evidence, a skeptic must reject faith healing as simply impossible.

Question 16

You believe in the power of Therapeutic Touch. You see a program on the Discovery Channel that shows examples of TT in action. You are now even more convinced than ever that TT heals people. Another program on PBS, however, announces that it will show TT is a fraudulent therapy. You won't watch this program because it casts doubt on your belief. This is an example of confirmation bias.

Question 17

You can still be a skeptic by respecting another person's point of view without necessarily agreeing with it.

Question 18

Shifting the burden of proof means inappropriately assuming the validity of a claim unless it is proven false by another person who never made the original claim.

Question 19

Skeptics are doubters by definition, naysayers looking to find fault with the claims of others.

Question 20

True believers are hucksters looking to con a gullible audience.

Question 21

One of the hallmarks of true belief is a passionate desire to self-correct, to correct erroneous claims.

Question 22

Flu shots typically have about a 60% effectiveness rate in preventing vaccinated individuals from getting the flu. Skeptics, therefore, should reject getting vaccinated because it doesn't even approach 100% effectiveness.

Question 23

When individuals hold strong beliefs, presenting lots of contradictory evidence that challenges those beliefs is highly likely to change their minds.

Question 24

Research shows that fake news is 70% more likely to be retweeted than real, substantial news.

Question 25

Research reveals that it takes truth ten times as long as misinformation to reach 1,500 people.

Question 26

Research shows that truthful information rarely spreads to more than 1,000 people, but the top 1% of false news routinely spreads to between 1,00 and 100,00 people on Twitter.