Critical Thinking Skills For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 3

Planting Ideas in Your Head: The Sociology of Thinking

IN THIS CHAPTER

Shaping views through social forces

Controlling people through propaganda

Using emotions to persuade

Recognizing the language of persuasion

Most people offering their views on something think that they’re presenting just the facts, helping others to avoid errors and “see the light,” so to speak. But plenty of others — such as experts in public relations (PR), marketing, and political campaigning — see facts as just the raw materials for a bigger project: planting new ideas in the public mind.

Now, of course, some ideas are good and socially beneficial (for example, that we need to keep rivers unpolluted and help sick children get the necessary treatment) and many others are harmless, but certain ideas are dangerous and lead to injustice and suffering. Unfortunately, history indicates fairly convincingly that the nastiest ideas seem to be the easiest to plant! They spread like fungus while the more delicate blooms of human culture wilt and fade — that is, if they’re not actually strangled. As a critical ...