Steering into the skid: On the norms of critical thinking

Abstract

While cognitive bias is often portrayed as a problem in need of a solution, some have argued that these biases arise from adaptive rea soning heuristics which can be ra tional modes of reasoning. This pre sents a challenge: If these heuristics are rational under the right condi tions, does teaching critical thinking undermine students' ability to reason effectively in real life reasoning sce narios? I argue that to solve this challenge, we should focus on how rational ideals are best approximated in human reasoners. Educators should focus on developing the met acognitive skill to recognize when different cognitive strategies (includ ing the heuristics) should be used.