Five simple strategies to sharpen your critical thinking | BBC Ideas

Is the sky really blue? That might seem obvious. But sometimes things are more nuanced and complicated than you think. Here are five strategies to boost your critical thinking skills.
Animated by Ana Stefaniak. Made in partnership with The Open University.
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#bbcideas #criticalthinking #trainyourbrain

[@bbcideas]

Are you watching this video whilst doing other things? Here's what goes on in our brains when we're multitasking and why (mostly) multitasking doesn't work 👉kzbin.info/www/bejne/qn7Mqq2rhJakg9U

[@hiromimaeda1526]

1.Beware of confirmation bias -much more likely to accept information that we already know -actively prepared to change your mind 2.Embrace nuance and complexity -something that seems self-evident can be more nuanced than you think 3.Practice intellectual humility -try to understand other person perspectives 4.Check your sources -lookout of ulterior motive/vested interest 5.Avoid fallacies -straw man fallacy,ad hominem fallacy

[@drinktearyuji]

Ty! This summary is pretty helpful. :D

[@anigrapixravi]

Thanks

[@M15TER_Turtlee]

Bro you saved my life, I hope you get a free happy meal

[@sereneanna4040]

@@M15TER_Turtlee 🤣

[@sereneanna4040]

Tks for e effort

[@letsfight9472]

Your journalists need this the most.

[@boyeliza]

😁🤌👍

[@Fanny_Snuffle]

And Channel Four.

[@cathahleipar1052]

and your comment is a great example of ad hominem attack

[@matthewleitch1]

This video seems to have been liked and appreciated by many people. Perhaps more BBC staff involved in news reporting should watch it.

[@MrFossil367ab45gfyth]

Nice, we need critical thinking, especially in today's world. Here are a few more steps: 1. Be tolerant. 2. Consider the feelings of others and yourself. 3. Ask questions. 4. Be skeptical, yet be open-minded. 5. Understand others' views, even if you don't agree. 6. Do research. 7. Don't jump to conclusions. 8. Always be curious.

[@mstarr4812]

Why should we be all tolerant and fuzzy? Many bad times in history needed a stronger approach- I think misinformed online perceptions are often dangerous, need confronting, big time.

[@user-re7ep7pp2d]

Yes, that's great admonition and education for us to learn and remember. Sometimes, we need to be a little bit serious and decisive for getting better.@@mstarr4812

[@user-re7ep7pp2d]

but sometimes we also need to be tolerant, esp. when the things have ambiguous and extremely complex characteristics or aspects.😃@@mstarr4812

[@Zett76]

What does „be tolerant“ mean? It‘s far too unspecific.

[@ellisholmes5423]

Friend, you are a friend :)

[@alienonion4636]

One thing I do that has served me well is when listening, reading, watching a video is when finding myself biased more than a bit is to reread as if I'd never heard of the subject before, as if I have no opinion about it. Most times I do find that if I have the desire to persue the topic to learn as much as I can or at least as many different opinions that I can find whatever opinion I did have prior to this changes.

[@curiouslyunruffled]

This is indeed a valuable, brilliantly-articulated compilation on how to promote critical thinking. I truly appreciate this channel's range of content! :)

[@bbcideas]

Thanks very much 😊 we're so glad you're enjoying our films!

[@khalsa7474]

@@bbcideas same here , keep posting

[@curiouslyunruffled]

@CanUDraw Thank you and yes, I try to. :)

[@cosmiccapers6260]

Oh boy, The BBC news could take .e lessons or two from this video when reporting to the nation!!!

[@live_monkey2485]

I was just thinking this. The BBC's very 'selective' reporting... their interviewers could learn a lot from this too.

[@TheSoulBlossom]

haha so true!

[@clydecessna737]

This is hysterical coming from the BBC who's entire raison d'etre was to fuzzy the thinking of the British people.

[@OfficialSonOfRock]

Critical thinking is good - especially when applied to the modern narrative of sensitive topics.

[@shruthiswaminathan2907]

Best video ever. Such thoughtful animations and sound effects - that add to/ clarify/ deepen the message quite beautifully. The content is presented in a succinct and straightforward manner. Kudos.

[@bbcideas]

Thank you Shruthi for such a great feedback! 😊

[@DBlockn05]

I learned most of this when I took philosophy in college...I wish more people took philosophy, it's way deeper than most of us believe it is.

[@davidsmits2378]

Although in general teachers do a fantastic job, let's think critically and ask the question: how can you be 100% sure that what the teacher teaches you is well meant? The ultimate proof would be if he/she teaches you to think critically and also invites you to think critically about what he/she is teaching you! It is arguably the most friendly and well meant thing that a teacher can do.

[@markchapman3811]

Thanks, it is a great video. However, I would like to see a summary part in the final part of the video, it would be better to remember main points again shortly.

[@neology81]

The BBC teaching critical thinking! Oh the irony!

[@lithiumgaurd]

What do you mean?

[@Showmetheevidence-]

😂😂

[@jr5389]

👌😂😂😂 That’s what my Caveman Brain 🧠 Said as SOON as I saw 👀 bBc …..🤪Beam me up Scotty 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿😎

[@fikrutsegaye2803]

U r not critically thinking 😅

[@sarahsmithpsychic1492]

😂😂😂

[@dmitriydkoshelk9179]

I would advice to combine somehow this product with BBC English Learning and provide some vocabulary explanations. This can seriously boost your audience. I am getting a lot of good information from your videos, as well as brushing up my English.

[@bbcideas]

We're glad to hear that you're brushing up on your English as well as learning something new from our videos. And who knows, perhaps in the future we'll be able to collaborate on a project with our colleagues from BBC Learning English 👍

[@simone222]

A much needed skill esp. in these times. Thank you, as always, BBC Ideas. Your videos are very useful and brilliant.

[@TheSoulBlossom]

and you got a heart because you agreed with their views! Haha!

[@Cat_in_Spacetime]

@@TheSoulBlossom man of culture

[@dmitriydkoshelk9179]

You guys are truly awesome. Have a good day!

[@kepspark3362]

What!? Critical thinking is way more fun in my case at least. I enjoy learning how i was wrong this whole time so that I get to actually improve.

[@armandoguajardo4789]

We need this more on our society

[@JarritoFresa]

This is a fine video on WHAT to do to sharpen your critical thinking skills. Now I need detailed videos on each point on HOW to apply these skills in everyday situations.

[@KudoShinichii1412]

amazing that this was made by BBC, it's like a magician telling the audiance about his tricks before making them amazing stuff

[@Dismythed]

One of the better videos about improving critical thinking. Your points were all correct, but there are whole lists of biases and fallacies that people should familiarize themselves with. Mentioning a single bias and a few popular fallacies is the bare minimum. In all, I give this an A. It is useful and properly informative.

[@arghyachakraborty]

Wow! Such clear explanations. Thank you for everything. ❤️ [PS ~ I just made some notes from this video to share with my students.]

[@ilqrd.6608]

BBC would do right remembering their own lessons here….

[@amyj.4992]

It's very important to know where your information comes from for sure and the way the data is presented

[@amyj.4992]

Once you get emotional in your debate, you argument is no longer merit. Learned that on debate team in highschool

[@user-xu9mf8vm2o]

Improving critical thinking is much more vital. I should take tong time to develop this skill. I should have the view from several angles may save me from troubles. Many times in my life, the situation is not look like my images, I often give some wrong solutions.

[@mellow-jello]

Use the art of thinking clearly. Be skeptical. Have it read aloud. Respect the source. Dialogue is more valuable than essays.

[@iamluckyjames_]

This is a very helpful guide on been able to think critically. Thank you very much for sharing and I'll put these five tips to such as I live my day-to-day life.

[@TheSoulBlossom]

Hearting comments which only say nice things about this video. Good job BBC ideas!

[@judysalem-ht2gw]

00:34 Strategies to navigate through and avoid falling out with people 01:08 Confirmation bias affects our ability to process information. 01:42 Be prepared to change your mind 02:16 Critical thinking involves being open to new perspectives 02:50 Practicing intellectual empathy leads to more productive outcomes. 03:24 Knowing the source of information is crucial for critical thinking. 03:58 Avoid straw man and ad hominem fallacies in critical thinking. 04:30 Critical thinking leads to a more curious, educated, and harmonious society.

[@muhammadsaraqa]

Her: What color is the sky? My brain: ay mi amor ay mi amor

[@curtiscarpenter9881]

I think the hard easy effect is something to overcome.

[@rohanmajumder8063]

BBC ideas have seriously made my grey cells actually think deep😌..Thank you❤️

[@MirlitronOne]

"The colour blue has a short wavelength, meaning it scatters more than other colours [TRUE] making it more visible to the human eye [NONSENSE]." Strategy five - AVOID FALLACIES.

[@emmajk7433]

I really needed to watch this. Thank you!

[@bailey_y]

What else could be better than the collab of BBC and OU? Do have s'more collab Videos??

[@Uswesi1527]

The most dangerous element of critical thinking is “ The Source of Information “

[@saidielhoussaine8007]

Stop media Clean yr subconscious mind Eat healthy Meditate Motivate yr self Humour Exercice

[@kathleensmith644]

Learn how to spell ‘YOUR’.

[@Cat_in_Spacetime]

Hard to control The Subconscious and Emotions. Or is it? (Vsauce music starts playing in the background)

[@arthurwieczorek4894]

You want to improve your critical thinking skills? Do this simple thing. When you find some statement to think about---reverse it. Restate it in its opposite form. When you first heard that statement you immediately had an intuition about its truth and meaning. When you restate it in its opposite ( in one of its opposites ), you now have a second intuition about that statement.

[@bradchristy5002]

Intellectual empathy certainly a key nicely done

[@blakkmagikk360]

The sealion and penguin part had me dying!! 🤣🤣😭😭💀💀

[@croutardsparrow]

Hello my dear friend! thank you for the cool video! keep filming! I'll wait for new videos

[@atharvagadekar4960]

It really helps in improving my thinking. Thanks for this video

[@barcelonachair6487]

These five simple strategies should be on the chyron on every news airing.

[@prasadbakare392]

not understood , it was fast

[@VasanthKumar-bf9je]

Same here

[@gizmomac1520]

Came here because of toxic social media. You encourage people to be skeptical and ask questions, but they think that you want them to treat you nicely. No, its called facing the facts. No emotions or feelings. And they dont want to question. Aye

[@yeobo]

be actively prepared to change your mind, beware of confirmation bias something that seems normal can be more nuanced than you think, think of things you know in a broader or more intricate aspect have intellectual empathy, try to understand where another is coming from check your sources ! basics of scientifically methodology

[@johnransom1146]

We took critical thinking or logic in grade 13 English. There’s so many more fallacies. Sunk cost fallacy is great for looking at whether to keep a car going. It’s a fallacy to think “I’ve got this much invested in this old car, what’s another repair?” Well, possibly not worth it.

[@angelina8811]

Fantastic video, thanks!

[@themaverick437]

Great Voice ☺️💞

[@aadithyagopalan2684]

Yes. Good video. I think "confirmation bias" is the most important item that humans ought to overcome. well said. Thinking from several angles may save us from trouble.

[@kashifabdullah5453]

So educating. Thank you for this.

[@Fabricio70695]

very explicit and true facts

[@corlisscrabtree3647]

Thank you

[@amosus4716]

i like the munkis

[@Do_not_at_me_bro]

Discernment > critical thinking

[@akbarkabiraj4517]

Worthy one...

[@apoorvayaduvanshi1226]

An amazing video production!!😍

[@TheSoulBlossom]

And you got a heart because you said something nice to them!

[@apoorvayaduvanshi1226]

@@TheSoulBlossom I appreciate what you said, thank you. I felt that something done so incredibly shouldn't go unappreciated. Take care Marcin, my best wishes.

[@SilentReports]

Thanks, but critically thinking your very last statement re critical thinking skills lead to understanding. Or maybe they increase the vicious responses by your opponent to match your skills of telling them so.

[@TheSoulBlossom]

We are never taught critical thinking because if we all REALLY started thinking critically we would see that the world REALLY isn't what we have been led to believe. The "ruling" (freedom hijackers) class does NOT want people who are capable of thinking for themselves. These types of videos are fine and dandy but they don't change much.

[@TheAramian]

Skeptically interesting 🤔🧐

[@TheTimeweaver]

I find this ironic coming from the BBC.

[@n.a.larson9161]

You've identified your bias against the BBC. Now what?

[@wonderlandhannah8]

Thanks 😊 it was just grand!!!

[@joshuaduca5527]

the important is i can answer the question without understanding the following

[@thomasstanford9451]

Some brilliant nlp material here

[@kepler186f4]

Excellent video!

[@-AkhilTej-]

💎🏆 Great insightful & fruitful video 🏆💎

[@dustyk103]

“Sealioning?” Don’t you mean trolling? Critical thinking requires knowledge of a subject that most people lack. Believing you know science because sometimes tells you they’re a scientist often leads to failure. Beware more of liars. They are far more prevalent than you think.

[@hamnazafar9579]

It's great content even I still not know how to sharpen my critical thinking..

[@TheSoulBlossom]

Just read more! Noam Chomsky, Erich Fromm, Orwell to begin with.

[@tttyuhbbb9823]

For a beginner, try to solve this equation, "If you go Black, you won't go back!" 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

[@OkeOke-ex4ht]

loveee the animationnnn😊

[@rajendrakhanvilkar9362]

Great video

[@TheSoulBlossom]

And you got a heart for expressing a view that they like! :)

[@hamza3065]

This is brilliant content

[@anxiousbaddie444]

i love this channel so much

[@R.A.A.]

4:10 The excessive use of pop art in this video turn it to an LSD trip 🤑

[@duckbizniz663]

Yes, it is important to listen to the other side. However, if the other side keeps making arguments that get progressively more extreme to the point where their claims are self-contradictory or impossible then you have to accept the fact that the other side is making things up. You cannot use reason, logic, and reality to debate against someone who is making up arguments that have nothing to do with reality. You have no choice but to conclude that they are liars.

[@Neil_MALTHUS]

Surely, they missed the most obvious and most important tip? Ask questions - lots of them, all in some way related to the thing on your mind. Try to find correct answers / honest opinions.

[@voltaire5047]

Any data to back up the conclusions here?

[@MohdAadilMalik-sj5kd]

If a person already intelligent he is already know these things conciously or sub-conciously which you taught in this video and if a person doesn't have critical thinking this video is gonna support one's fool logic.

[@FattyDaddyReviews]

Very interesting!

[@alexsidney4796]

Has anyone at the BBC seen this ?

[@joshuaduca5527]

this maybe a hard way to me to do critical thinking at the beginning you can't solve when your not reading a book and not doing to evaluting the problem math first at all you need all process to your goals read some books and dont lost your hope like note talking reading articles and practicing at math sessions i also do this i got only few right answer but you know im not really good at math 😅😆

[@TheBountyChannel]

does that mean that different animals see the sky as different colours? Can we have one episode for that?

[@iainmackenzieUK]

I find it significant that so few have watched or commented on this since its launch two years ago. Perhaps critical thinking being boring or bad is an idea that sits within 'confirmation bias' of many of us? What do you think?

[@Vision267]

1:21

[@johnstopford9633]

Interesting video a few problems, that is mainstream media like BBC is highly questionable when it comes to credibility. Most intelligent individual's would highly question anything coming from Mainstream media or other external sources.

[@gwarlow]

Now, after watching this BBC video, go and watch the BBC News… compare and contrast!

[@dimitrovajunkie]

Isn't the claim at the end that critical thinking will lead to a "more curious, educated, and harmonious society" itself an unproven claim that should be questioned and tested? Okay, being open-minded could equate with curiosity and perhaps critical thinking will help with that, but this appears to be something to be taken on faith and not provable by any standards of epistemological validity such as a priori or a posteriori reasoning. I suppose curious in the interest of finding out whether or not a particular argument is sound and valid might be plausible, but this seems rather limited. I don't see how it will lead to a broader form of curiosity. Claim #2--"more educated." Ah, the formal education appeal. I've met plenty of so-called "educated" people who more often than not used their education to support whatever argument they were trying to make. In other words, the outcome had been pre-determined. They knew all the words to say, what postures to take, and how to frame their argument to make it appear above reproach. Their prejudices and assumptions were very much below obvious notice. Educated in a minor sense of being more knowledgeable seems a safer claim to make, although the stakes seem rather low. We need to define what we mean by educated and to determine if this is something that is even testable. And lastly, a harmonious society. This one I have the hardest time agreeing with. It seems to assume that just by adopting a more critical approach to life's problems, the end result will be humanity being miraculously absolved of human self-interest and all the baser passions that whether we like it or not tend to rule our existence, and that our biological programming will somehow be overcome. So could the problems in Ukraine and Gaza have been avoided if both sides had been critical thinkers? Seems naive. In fact, I would venture to say that those in power might actually be hostile to critical thinking if it went against their objectives. This is why the intellectual class is so often under duress in totalitarian states. Harmonious indeed.

[@ameliac7338]

Graphics are hilarious!

[@alexanderkane3960]

Science itself dulls critical thinking. Have you ever considered that?? We are supposed to believe that they have all the answers? Think about what peer review means. Only a few selected people can prove or disprove any theories or scientific findings! Confirmation bias at its best right there 😂

[@stefannikola]

Oprah Winfrey and Barack Hussein Obama need to work on #3.

[@ulugbekzokirov6252]

This episode inspired me to think critically. Thanks for an immersive content. I'd be happy if you make videos about the differences in left-handed and right-handed people.

[@dd.oliver]

These are great for academia, but not for social life. You should give up on some of them to have a successful social life with your uncle.

[@JebadiaSmith]

Why use critical thinking when all the advice KZbin seems to give is to "Stop over thinking".. I'm getting mixed messages here...

[@johnsmith-ht3sy]

I sharpened my critical thinking by no longer watching the toxic BBC and cancelled my license.

[@kenmakazome1140]

Wdym?

[@kennethduryea1478]

Lucky you. Here in Germany we can't cancel the license, even if we never watch ARD or ZDF.

[@genekendrick679]

😂😂

[@easilydistracted1397]

The license fee for the BBC is an absolute bargain. Toxic - I think not.

[@johnsmith-ht3sy]

@@easilydistracted1397 Only BBC staff think that, grifter job.

[@MFM230]

I read a book by a theologian who constantly employed straw-man fallacies. He began an argument with the most extreme caricature of his opponents' position, and then at the end of the argument walked back his extreme view of their position so as to attempt a modicum impartiality.

[@hermionegardener3796]

I have never heard the term "sea lioning" perhaps you mean "trolling"?

[@aarone9000]

Once upon a time gradeschool children were taught this; But I guess it didnt bode well for the republicans; so like sooooo many books nowdays; it was eliminated/ banned! And this is a far more useful and benificil thing to learn then algabra!

[@dianawolf894]

Critical thinking skills