Andrew Badham 2023-05-02 15:47:42

One of the simplest but most underrated skills in critical thinking is knowing when to switch on your scepticism. When we hear information that sounds false or misleading, our scepticism kicks into gear and we question what we’re hearing. That way, we can check to see whether this information is credible. The trouble is, our scepticism doesn’t always switch on when it needs to and we can’t have it running all the time; that’s just too tiring and inefficient. What we need are red flags to look for to switch on our scepticism.

So, I’ve decided to put together a list of some of the common red flags that I look for to help me keep a critical but fair eye on the information I consume. The first one in this series is, Too Good to Be True.

Too good to be true

This first of our red flags may seem a little obvious, after all the title implies that we can see that this may be false already. Unfortunately, what seems too good to be true to one person, might seem like an exciting opportunity to someone else.

For example, if you receive an SMS saying, “Hi, I’m a project manager and I’d like to speak to you about a remote work opportunity you might be interested in. The pay is R1000 an hour. Please follow this link if you’re interested.”

One person might look at this and think, Gee, there are a lot of upsides and no downsides mentioned here. That makes me a little suspicious.

Another person might think, Finally! The opportunity I’ve been waiting for!

Why do we fall for it

We often fall for things that seem too good to be true just because we so badly want them to be true. Someone unemployed is way more likely to fall for the example above than someone with a steady job.

Here’s another example: a video goes around talking about this one diet hack which helped someone lose 10kg in just a week. One person watching the video finds it easy to stay at a healthy body weight; another person finds it extremely difficult. Which of these two do you think might be less likely to switch on their scepticism and question the accuracy of the video? It’s probably the person who wants it to be true.

Of course, there are other factors as well. Your education, experience, and background can help you to switch on your scepticism at the right time. However, there is another factor which can undermine that, confirmation bias.

If we already agree with something or like a particular idea, we might not notice when that idea gets pushed to an extreme.

For example, if you found some success in losing weight on an intermittent fasting diet, you would be more partial to a statement like, “Intermittent fasting will help you to lose more weight, build more muscle and live longer than any other diet.” Even though this very extreme statement might appear as a red flag for someone else.

How to spot it

If an idea promises to solve all your problems quickly with little effort or investment, it's likely too good to be true. In other words, does it seem like there is only an upside and no downside? If so, it’s probably not giving a fair and balanced opinion.

Does that mean that we immediately dismiss whatever was said? No, a red flag is there just to get your attention and make you look deeper. Sometimes when we look deeper, we find that there was an element of truth in the message anyway. The important thing is that we didn’t jump to a conclusion about the message being right or wrong.