Think It Through: the Clearer Thinking Podcast

Episode 43: Agnotology--the Study of Ignorance and Manufactured Doubt

Send us a textIn this episode, April explains that ignorance and stupidity are not the same thing. But when doubt is deliberately created as a strategic ploy by powerful entities, the ignorance that results can be not only stupid, but dangerous.Episode 43 Show NotesDefinition of "epistomology:" https://www.britannica.com/topic/epistemologyGood explanation of agnotology by Dr Mark Crislip: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/agnotology-the-study-of-ignorance/Dr Robert Proctor on Alie Ward: https://www.alieward.com/ologies/agnotologyThe post-truth world: https://theconversation.com/scientists-have-a-word-for-studying-the-post-truth-world-agnotology-71542Medium article https://medium.com/@porlando_84392/agnotology-the-study-of-ignorance-351ba8ae432dFind out about, and buy, Merchants of Doubt here: https://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/Great article on "the science of spin:  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7996119/ Michael Facciani's website: https://www.matthewfacciani.com/Agnotology explains why social media platforms don’t investigate the negative impacts of their messaging: https://www.cigionline.org/articles/social-media-platforms-and-upside-ignorance/Changes to social media sites involving previously banned content: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/everything-to-know-about-meta-political-content-update/737123/Yes, scientists do agree on climate change: https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/Jake Scott's Senate testimony: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Scott-Testimony.pdfHere are a few good sources I didn't have time to discuss:How scientists deal with what they don’t know https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/evan.21303?msockid=1e22d990d6c764bc2523cc64d77d65dbHow agnotology might work to fight disinformation https://www.wired.com/story/agnotology-misinformation-opinion/Agnotology and political rhetoric https://www.aaronhuertas.com/invisible-messaging-the-power-of-agnotology-in-political-rhetoric/

Episode 42: Why We Are So Good At Fooling Ourselves--Understanding Motivated Reasoning

Send us a textIn this episode, April explains how this biased form of reasoning keeps our identities and emotions safe from the harsh glare of reality. Using justifications to support what we really want to be true lies at the heart of motivated reasoning, so the next time you eat a whole sleeve of Ritz crackers and wash it down with chardonnay, remind yourself that you exercised that morning, so it's ok.**note--when she says you, she means herself...Episode 42 Show Notes:The News Literacy Project article on motivated reasoning: https://newslit.org/educators/resources/in-brief-confirmation-bias-motivated-reasoning/Science Direct is a scientific, health, and technical literature database containing millions of peer-reviewed articles on a wide variety of topics: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/motivated-reasoninghttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026137941400105XMental Health Matters is a website devoted to mental health conditions and disorders: https://mental-health-matters.org/2024/12/12/an-overview-of-motivated-reasoning/Matt Grawitch's substack page, The Eel-Filled Hovercraft, is full of great information about psychology and decision-making: https://mattgrawitch.substack.com/Information about climate change beliefs: https://epic.uchicago.edu/insights/2024-poll-americans-views-on-climate-change-and-policy-in-12-charts/Excellent article about the link between conspiracy theories and motivated reasoning: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ajps.12234?msockid=1e22d990d6c764bc2523cc64d77d65dbNobel prize winner Gordon Pennycock talks about why conspiracy theorists think that their beliefs are widespread: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/07/conspiracy-theorists-think-their-views-are-mainstream/This Psychology Today article, also by Matt Grawitch, discusses the problems that can occur when goals and values collide: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hovercraft-full-eels/202106/the-collision-among-goals-and-accuracyIvan Jureta's article about avoiding motivated reasoning when making corporate decisions: https://ivanjureta.com/motivated-reasoning-how-to-detect-and-mitigate-its-risks/This vs That's article on critical thinking vs reflective thinking: https://thisvsthat.io/critical-thinking-vs-reflective-thinkingYouGov article about popular conspiracy theories and the numbers of Americans who believe them: https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/48113-which-conspiracy-theories-do-americans-believe

Episode 41: Fallacy Watch: No True Scotsman, Argument from Repetition, and "I'm Entitled to My Opinion"

Send us a textApril confesses to being a "big ol' nerd" while discussing three sneaky fallacies that sidestep evidence and shut down discourse.Episode 41 Show Notes:It's a study guide about the No True Scotsman fallacy! Hey, they're good for adults too: https://studylatam.com/no-true-scotsman-fallacy-in-philosophy/Another good article about No True Scotsman: https://practicalpie.com/no-true-scotsman/Rational Wiki is always a good go-to for fallacies: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/No_True_ScotsmanWhat's cognitive ease? Here you go: learning-mind.com/cognitive-ease/Great article on the illusory truth effect: https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/illusory-truth-effectPatrick Stokes' article in The Conversation on why he's so tough on his philosophy students: https://theconversation.com/no-youre-not-entitled-to-your-opinion-9978Stephen Rainey's blog that discusses the concept of our "entitlement" to opinions: https://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2019/03/entitlement/*I have begun using ChatGPT to organize and outline my episodes--it does a great job clarifying my ideas. I still do the writing, though, so I can't say it saves a lot of time!

Episode 40: Why Good Data is Essential for Good Thinking (And What Happens When It's Taken Away)

Send us a textIn this episode, April talks about why good data (current, accurate, and trustworthy) is so important to good thinking. She is perturbed about the current administration's deliberate attempts to delete, change, or hide critical government data. However, she is also hopeful that the many efforts to protect and preserve this data will be successful.Episode 40 Show Notes--just citations because my explanations took up too much data... https://www.getrightdata.com/blog/why-quality-matters-the-10-biggest-data-quality-disastershttps://www.smorescience.com/data-driven-life-how-information-shapes-our-daily-decisionsexamples-of-data-in-everyday-life/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2025/05/06/newark-airport-radio-radar-failures/83471323007/ https://abcnews.go.com/Health/white-house-covid-web-page-page-supporting-lab/story?id=120956514 https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31012025/trump-administration-war-on-science/https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/climate-change-transparency-project-foia/2025-02-06/disappearing-data-trump?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://www.rheumatologyadvisor.com/news/key-cdc-health-websites-vanish-following-trump-orders/?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://www.cidrap.umn.edu/public-health/removal-pages-cdc-website-brings-confusion-dismay?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5288113/cdc-website-health-data-trumphttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/20/trump-missing-murdered-indigenous-peoples-report-removed?utm_source=chatgpt.comhttps://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-data-hoarders-resisting-trumps-purgehttps://libguides.umn.edu/c.php?g=1449575&p=10778647https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Government_watchdog_groups_in_the_United_Stateshttps://journalistsresource.org/home/researchers-rush-to-preserve-federal-health-databases-before-they-disappear-from-government-websites/

Episode 39: Understanding and Countering Propaganda

Send us a textIn this episode, April attempts to unpack the complicated topic of propaganda, a form of persuasion used by corporations, advertisers, pundits, influencers, and political personalities. These days, it's important for critical thinkers to understand that there should be a delineation between propaganda and the kind of rhetoric used in democratic governance, to recognize propaganda and to avoid being influenced by it. If this sounds important--well, it is.Episode 39 Show Noteshttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda--this references the origins of the word propaganda and its original link to religious proselytizinghttps://www.thoughtco.com/propaganda-definition-1691544--Dr. Richard Nordquist's excellent ThoughtCo article about the difference between rhetoric and propagandahttps://researchguides.uoregon.edu/medialiteracy/propaganda --University of Oregon's Media Literary Research guide's deep dive into propaganda has some great information about how to determine if something is propagandahttps://researchguides.uoregon.edu/medialiteracy/propaganda --the Naab Research Center gives examples of positive uses of propagandaEmotional Campaigning in Politics: Being Moved and Anger …--a pdf of Gruning and Schubert's article about the use of emotion in political campaignshttps://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/glittering-generalities--YourDictionary.com has a great article with examples of glittering generalitieshttps://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Loaded_language--the list of "snarl" words is at the bottom of this wiki page devoted to loaded languagehttps://www.allsides.com/sites/default/files/AllSidesMediaBiasChart-Version2.jpg--an updated version of the AllSides Media Bias charthttps://mediabiasfactcheck.com/--a great source for checking the bias of any news source, as well as whether it has failed any fact checkshttps://disinformation-nation.org/combat-propaganda/--great article about ways to combat propagandahttps://www.shortform.com/summary/thinking-fast-and-slow-summary-daniel-kahneman?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=531475976&msclkid=704335b2e9371134f6f7526e8cdafb8c--a long web address leading to a short summary of Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking Fast and Slowhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-act-be/202003/can-you-be-abundantly-cautious-and-fearless--while this article was written about the Covid pandemic, the ideas in it still resonatehttps://www.neuroandcounselingcenter.com/single-post/informed-protect-peace--good ideas from certified mental health counselor Amanda Levison, about how to keep your cool and not get overwhelmed w