Beliefs

Some beliefs can hinder critical thinking. If you believe you will fail at trying to solve a problem, you probably
won’t try. If you don’t try, you won’t avail yourself of the opportunity to learn and develop your talents, including
your critical thinking talents. Surprisingly, much research has found that believing that intelligence is something
you are born with, and is fixed for life by your genes, hinders people in several ways that might affect their ability
to think critically. “One of the dumbest things people do with the fixed view of intelligence is to sacrifice important
learning opportunities when those opportunities contain a risk of revealing ignorance or making errors” (Dweck
2002: 29). Why? Because people who believe intelligence is completely fixed tend to fear failure more than people
who view intelligence as largely a potential that can be developed. They seem to fear failure because they tend to
measure their self-worth by their intelligence. They interpret any failure as a sign that they lack intelligence. They
thus tend to play it safe. People who believe intelligence is malleable tend to interpret any given failure as a sign
that they lack a specific skill or bit of knowledge. Instead of being put off by failure, they are often inspired by it to
take action and even take more risks. Without risks, learning is impossible. Dweck puts it this way: “Students who
hold a fixed view of their intelligence care so much about looking smart that they act dumb….”(2002: 31).
Another belief that can hinder critical thinking is the belief that only dumb people have to work hard or that
intelligent people learn effortlessly (Dweck 2002: 31). This phenomenon is called self-handicapping (Berglas
1990), and it is the tendency to do things that will prevent you from looking like you have low ability, even if these
are things that will jeopardize your performance. When people self-handicap, it means that they care more about
looking smart (or avoiding looking dumb) than about accomplishing something (Dweck 2002: 32). Unfortunately,
self-handicapping is something intelligent people who believe in fixed intelligence tend to do because they tend to
believe things should come easy to them. The moral of the story seems to be: Even if there is some limit to
intelligence imposed by biology, believing that intelligence is largely a potential to be developed, will often be the
main difference between two equally intelligent people who are unequal critical thinkers.
Exercise
There are many beliefs that could hinder the development of critical thinking. Create a list of five beliefs that
you believe would hinder critical thinking and explain why you think so.