Critical Thinking: Definition, Examples, & Skills

By Kelsey Schultz, Ph.D. Candidate
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
Learn more about what critical thinking is and how to practice it every day. 
*This page may include affiliate links; that means we earn from qualifying purchases of products.
Every day, we are inundated with choices. We chose the people with whom we spend our precious time, who we vote for, what food we eat, what clothes to wear, how best to tend to our health, how much money we should let ourselves spend at Target, etc. Making poor choices can be socially, psychologically, physically, and financially costly. In some instances, the consequences of bad decisions can be enduring.​
In addition to the challenges of a daily deluge of decision-making, there are those with a vested interest in bamboozling and manipulating us. Sometimes it is people in power whose primary concern is maintaining power, sometimes it’s people who want to sell us stuff, and sometimes we’re the ones attempting to delude ourselves. Luckily, we can protect ourselves from deceit, delusions, and extemporaneous decisions by applying a little critical thinking.

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What Is Critical Thinking? (A Definition)

Critical thinking is a faculty that is thought to be unique to humans, granted to us by our higher-order and most recently evolved brain structure: the pre-frontal cortex. It’s the pre-frontal cortex that gives us the ability to deliberate, compare new information with what we know to be true, and to opt-out of the base patterns of behavior inherited from our ancestors.
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The exact definition of critical thinking is still debated among scholars. It has been defined in many different ways including the following:
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  • “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or conceptual considerations upon which that judgment is based” (Facione, 1990, p. 3).
  • “skillful, responsible thinking that facilitates good judgment because it 1) relies upon criteria, 2) is self-correcting, and 3) is sensitive to context” (Lipman, 1988, p. 39);

And

  • “seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that disconfirms your ideas, reasoning dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth” (Willingham, 2007, p. 8).​​

​Though we don’t have a specific and universally accepted description of critical thinking, there is widespread agreement on the foundational elements. In general, critical thinking is understood to involve skeptical scrutiny—an open-minded but cautious approach to determining the veracity of a proposition through reasoning informed by evidence.

For a brief summary of what critical thinking is, check out this video from MACAT, a global leader in critical thinking solutions:

Consciousness Examples

In addition to the different facets of consciousness - like perception, self-reflection, etc.- there are different states of consciousness in which some or all of these facets operate in a unique way. Some examples of different states of consciousness include:
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  • Sleeping
  • Dreaming
  • Hallucinations
  • Hypnosis
  • Meditation
  • Transcendent spiritual experiences

Video: What is Critical Thinking?

Why Critical Thinking Is Important

Critical thinking & autonomy
Critical thinking is a central feature of autonomy. When we make decisions that are not well-informed and carefully reasoned, it is easier for us to be manipulated, for others to influence us in such a way that we are unwittingly acting as the means for someone else’s ends. To put it perhaps a little dramatically, we risk becoming the puppets of some egoistic puppet master.  Astronomer and world-renowned science communicator, Carl Sagan, cautions us against this outcome in his 1995 book, The Demon-Haunted World. He expresses that credulously accepting everything we’re told gives other people power over us and warns us that “Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

Critical thinking & democracy
Critical thinking is also a vital element of a functioning democracy for this same reason. Through misinformation and manipulation, people are often compelled to support policies that don’t reflect their values or needs. For example, we all require clean air and hospitable temperatures for survival and the science is crystal clear that both of these needs are under critical threat and we must act fast if we want to ensure a future for all of humanity (Arias et al., 2021). 

Despite the clear and present danger of climate change and the well-documented contribution of fossil fuels to the current crisis, people still vote for politicians who are opposed to making any meaningful changes. But these voters aren’t simply wicked people who don’t care about the future of our species. Many of them are kind-hearted, intelligent people who care deeply about their children’s future. They’ve simply been deceived, tricked into upholding an industry that is steadily destroying their home, convinced to shield their minds from the abundance of evidence pointing toward impending catastrophe in favor of the short-term gains of billionaires.
 
Given that the assumption of democracy is that a populace is better equipped to make decisions that promote their health and well-being than, say, an autocrat is, but much of the populace is making decisions that are ill-informed and arguably not truly volitional, it’s easy to see how a paucity of critical thinking degrades the integrity of a democratic system.

Critical thinking & financial decisions
As mentioned previously, critical thinking also protects us against those with a vested interest in deceiving us out of our money. For example, many purveyors of ‘holistic medicine’ might try to convince you that purchasing a particular set of crystals will improve aspects of your physical health or love life, despite the stark lack of evidence supporting these claims. 

I’m particularly susceptible to any product purported to improve canine health and longevity. I have on many occasions found myself with hundreds of dollars worth of vitamins and supplements in my shopping cart before stopping to evaluate the quality of the evidence provided (when there is any evidence at all) supporting the efficacy of the product. With a splash of critical thinking, however, I've saved myself from an expensive bout of disappointment.

Critical Thinking Benefits

The benefits of critical thinking are limitless. Here are just a few of the more obvious and common benefits of putting our pre-frontal cortex to work (Facione, 2011).
  • Improved creativity
  • More job success
  • Better financial management
  • Reduced probability of imprisonment
  • Greater self-knowledge
  • Improved quality of relationships

Barriers to Critical Thinking

In a perfect world, critical thinking would be easy and consistently employed, but the unfortunate reality is that there are many barriers that inhibit the use of logic and reason. One barrier is the amount of time and mental energy required for careful consideration. We simply make too many decisions every day to carefully evaluate every single one. Because our brains are such energy-hungry organs (they consume 20% of our energy despite only being 8% of our body weight), they are hardwired to look for shortcuts, and often those shortcuts skip the process of critical thinking.

Another barrier is our deep-seated affinity for certainty. In general, ambiguity makes humans terribly uncomfortable. This is truer for some people than it is for others, but overall, we desire to see the world as comprehensible and predictable. Critical thinking requires that we question our assumptions, which means accepting that our vision of the world may be wrong and, worse yet, that there are some things we simply don’t or can’t know.
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Finally, people tend to believe what they want to be true (Gilovic, 1991). It can be painful to consider that some deeply held beliefs, particularly those that are comforting or self-serving, might be false. To avoid the pain and discomfort caused by the shedding of pacifying delusions, we are inclined to just not think too hard about them.

How to Think Critically

We know that critical thinking involves the ability to recognize and develop a well-reasoned point of view, so let’s get into how we can actually go about this.
 
In The Demon-Haunted World (really a fantastic read if you are interested in learning more about critical thinking and pseudoscience) Carl Sagan lays out what he describes as the “Baloney Detection Kit”, which is a collection of cognitive tools we can refer to in situations when we need to think critically. You can find the Baloney Detection Kit in its entirety here. To keep it simple, I’ve summarized some of the tools Sagan includes in the tool kit into 6 questions we can ask ourselves when we are trying to determine whether or not an argument is baloney:
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  1. Can you confirm the “facts” presented with multiple other sources?
  2. What level of expertise does the person presenting the argument have with the subject matter?
  3. Are there other explanations that are simpler or more likely to be true?
  4. Does the argument logically follow from the premise?
  5. Is there quantifiable evidence in support of the argument?
  6. Could the argument be proven false?

Critical Thinking Examples

Below are a few imaginary scenarios in which you might apply your baloney detection skills:
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  • You’re scrolling through Instagram and see an ad for a serum that is “guaranteed” to make you’re your eyelashes 10x longer and thicker. Before deciding to purchase the product, you first look up the serum ingredients to determine whether there are any studies that support the claim in the ad.
  • The governor of your state says that a particular virus is not dangerous or readily transmissible. Recognizing that the governor does not have any background in biology or virology, you decide to compare this declaration with what experts in the field have to say to see if the governor’s opinion aligns with the current consensus among scientists.
  • You and your roommate hear a strange noise in the house. Your roommate speculates that the source of the noise was a poltergeist. You offer alternative hypotheses and the two of you discuss the plausibility of each hypothesis to identify which hypothesis is most likely to be true.

Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is generally thought to include 6 core skills (Facione, 2011):

  1. Interpretation – understanding the significance of a wide variety of experiences
  2. Analysis – examining ideas to identify the reasons and claims of an argument
  3. Explanation – presenting your reasoned argument including the evidence supporting it
  4. Evaluation – Assessing the credibility of claims and the quality of arguments made
  5. Inference – Formulating alternative hypotheses and drawing logically valid conclusions
  6. Self-regulation – Monitoring yourself and updating your viewpoint in accordance with the evidence

Scholars and researchers that study critical thinking often note that, in addition to the skills, critical thinking requires the disposition to actually use them (Lai, 2011).

Critical Thinking Exercises

Research suggests that critical thinking, like other skills, can be developed through intention and practice (Wallace & Jefferson, 2015). To learn more about how to practice critical thinking, you can check out these two videos:

Video: 5 Tips to Improve Your Critical Thinking

Video: Encourage Critical Thinking with 3 Questions

Quotes on Critical Thinking

  • “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle
  • “Critical thinking requires us to use our imagination, seeing things from perspectives other than our own and envisioning the likely consequences of our position.” – Bell Hooks
  • “The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction.” – Bertrand Russell
  • “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire
  • “Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for critical thinking.” – Leo Tolstoy
  • “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” – William James
  • “Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.” – Carl Sagan
  • “It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it.” – Edmond Way Teale
  • “… For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride, lest his mind should seem to be occupied with things mean and transitory; things not commonly believed, out of deference to the opinion of the vulgar. Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in which the affections colour and infect the understanding.” – Sir Francis Bacon​

Articles Related to Critical Thinking

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:​​​

Books Related to Critical Thinking​

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a vital component of our daily lives. It allows us to be responsible citizens, enriches our lives with a more accurate representation of how the universe really works, and inoculates us against charlatans and purveyors of alt-facts. By moving through life with curiosity, respect for evidence, openness to correction, and a keen awareness of common biases and barriers to critical thought, we can improve both our lives and our world.  ​

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References

  • Arias, P., Bellouin, N., Coppola, E., Jones, R., Krinner, G., Marotzke, J., ... & Zickfeld, K. (2021). Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group14 I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Technical Summary.
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