Critical Mind- The Neglected Concept

Time For Critical Thinking

Not only does it mean literally that it is time for the Critical Mind to act, but it also generally requires a lot of time and a stress-free environment if the Critical Mind is to function usefully. But more on that later.
The critical mind is the most important instance of our mindset that differentiates us from animals and means that our decision-making is not based solely on instinctive or emotional actions.
However, the zeitgeist is developing in a direction of information overload, sensitivities and social pressure and our ability to question things critically is therefore severely limited.
Our critical mind depends on a well-rehearsed and healthy mindset that defines our personality with all its mental systems. Our mindset, in turn, is a mental complex with interdependent systems that can only function optimally if the underlying person – especially in their younger years – has been lucky enough to develop a critical mind that is as untamed as possible.
Often this is not the case and people fall into a zombie-like state of automatism and compliance.
In order to avoid or reverse this, we try to get to the bottom of how the critical mind works.

Our Mindset

You can divide our mental-functional brain – or metaphorically our mindset – into different sections.

First, there are the primordial systems such as our instinct, sometimes also referred to as the “reptilian brain”. Instinct controls rudimentary decisions such as food procurement and intake, desire and drive behavior, hunting instinct, fight and flight behavior but also social instincts such as brood care. Instinct usually manifests itself through a subtle but irresistible urge that awakens a specific need from the subconscious. More on needs later.

Furthermore, there is our limbic system, in the middle of the brain, which is responsible for processing our emotions and has extensive synaptic connections with the different systems such as planning, decision-making, language, general physical control via hormones, the processing of sensory signals, movement, motivation and learning, but also the development of memories.

A vast area of our mind that I like to call the “fog of thoughts”. It is our thought database and houses all our raw thought structures and thought fragments, evolving over time. These are provided with emotion associations of varying strength and are located in several different parts of the brain (association cortex, Hippocampus, Thalamus, Default mode network (DMN)).
But clear, conscious and complex thoughts can also be found in these areas, among others. They dynamically form connections when stimulated by stimuli and optimize themselves by forming synapses between neurons or reduce connections (Pruning) when there is no stimulation, especially in the teenage years of our lives.
Our Programmatic Memory is another system located primarily in the cerebellum, but also includes other important brain regions that provide important controls for automated physical and mental processes. These systems are of crucial importance for the functioning of various automatisms, which control not only physical automatisms such as breathing, heartbeat, blinking, etc., and also learned processes and conditioning, habits, prejudices and stereotypes, social conformity, self-protection mechanisms, emotional reactions but also cognitive biases that occur primarily unconsciously with very little influence in the background.

We also have an extensive area for processing patterns, which processes mental patterns as well as patterns and sequences that are perceived through sensory stimuli and trigger corresponding automatisms, instinctive behavior or emotions. This area works closely with the cerebral cortex, our thought database, and is also connected to programmatic memory and the limbic system.
Pattern recognition triggers needs that create corresponding incentives for the motivation system. These are prioritized and classified according to importance by our value system. The interpretation of thoughts is filtered through defined framework conditions (framing). An expectation then begins to develop, which creates a correspondingly strong volitional energy and triggers motivation. Depending on the intensity of the volition, the motivation is followed by an action (movement, speaking, etc.).

Probably the most personal instance of mindset is the symbiosis of our ego and our self-confidence, which together function as a kind of consciousness balance system. Within this system you can also see the critical mind itself, which is very closely linked to self-confidence, from which the critical mind gets its strongest drive.
The rudimentary urge to survive manifests itself through the ego, the I, our innermost wishful thinking, i.e. the driving forces of the pleasure center. It is defined by our needs and the idealized idea of ourselves. Sigmund Freud referred to the ego as “It”. It is the combination of pure instinct and natural, innate but also learned automatisms and deeply rooted beliefs with which our lives have been shaped from the very beginning and pure desire – the desire to experience life with the maximum amount of pleasure.
The ego also has the important function of being the main supplier of our motivational energy to ensure our survival in one way or another and to do everything possible to satisfy our needs and advance us as an individual.

Mindsets can also be called "Lifestyle"

In contrast to the ego, as a kind of reality checker, there is our self-confidence, i.e. everything about which we are sure and aware that we can control it or have knowledge because we have the corresponding experiences, and these are also practical know how to apply. So, it is our “being” – the current state of our actual ability.
Now self-confidence is our most important source of energy for our critical thinking ability, which must critically monitor all systems of our mindset.
However, only together do the ego and self-confidence form a balance with a strong impact on the functionality of our mindset. Only when the size of the ego in relation to the ego’s self-confidence is not dominant can the critical mind do its work effectively and unbiased by the ego. If self-confidence is too low and the ego is too dominant, the critical mind cannot exert its regulating effect. However, if the “energy” of the ego is too low, one will generally be able to muster very little motivation to adequately satisfy one’s needs because the self-preservation drive is too low. A balanced weighting of ego and self-confidence is extremely important to function effectively as a human being.

📜 The CyberZadi article Bestseller MINDSET: A Guide to Thoughtless Efficiency takes a critical look into our mindset.

The Critical Mind

The Critical Mind (the critical thinking) is one of the outstanding abilities we have and enables us to critically question all of our intrinsic or extrinsic thoughts and actions.

However, using them is more difficult than you might think. Various Cognitive biases, influencing emotions, missing knowledge and social pressure are just a few of the influences that significantly reduce or even prevent our ability to think critically.

Only when we are clear about the importance and relevance of developing a critical consciousness are we able to shape our self-image into the Ultima Persona as it really is and not just an illusion of our self, driven by our ego’s desires.
So you can clearly see how important it is for our self-confidence to be an effective counterweight to the ego so that we stay grounded in reality and don’t take off with an ego illusion of ourselves.
So what are the main functions of the critical mind?

Value System And Framing

The Critical Mind questions our value system.
What is it worth to us? Which influences conditioned our values? To which Commitments (metaphorical declarations of a contract) have we given our consent and from where did the persuasions lead to the commitments?

The framing is defined by values , which determines for us the framework conditions how we think about what and what our attitudes are to the various topics in life and in which “light” we interpret them or through which “glasses” we see them.
Depending on how much time we have invested in forming an opinion, or how much energy it has cost us to accept a belief, the greater the value of this opinion appears to us. If we had to make major concessions in forming an opinion because we were persuaded (usually unconsciously) to believe in that opinion, that opinion can also have great value and therefore have a very strong influence.
Only our critical judgment can question and re-evaluate the values that formed this opinion in advance in order to assess more practical contexts and their consequences accordingly. Once an opinion is characterized by a strong commitment and a great value, it can be a very difficult undertaking for the critical mind to question this opinion.
A method that can sometimes be successful is by re-interpreting the opinion with changing values through building new commitments, for example through self-hypnosis, Affirmations or re-frames.
📜 Read more about framing in the CyberZadi article FRAMING: romanticizing Worldviews.

Formation Of Complex Thought Structures

The critical mind plays an important role when simple, unrelated raw thought elements form into more complex thought structures. Our conviction plays the biggest role in acceptance in order to accept and develop new and more complex thought structures.

Through critical reflection alone, we stimulate our consciousness not to be satisfied too quickly with thought patterns that are too simple and arise quickly and that fit well now. Perhaps they are underpinned by strong emotions instead of investing more energy and time in finding meaningful contextual connections.
Unfortunately, the way we process our thoughts is designed to use as little energy as possible, because this has to be balanced out by energy intake in the form of nutrients, which puts us back in the situation of having to use energy to organize and consume food. It’s not all that easy!
We are therefore required to be aware of the fact that, despite the disadvantages of the increased energy requirement, we should invest more energy in additional brain processing because this should result in more meaningful, and complex thought structures and we consider this to be good and valuable.

In addition, there is the factor of time, which – in our hectic world – we want to spend as much as possible doing pleasant things. Critically questioning complex thought patterns is not possible at the time. We do not have any time! Especially when dealing with time-consuming and critical ways of looking at our consciousness can be uncomfortable for us. Nobody wants unpleasant things!
But that’s exactly what separates us critical thinkers from the remote-controlled meat-and-bone sacks out there who walk around like zombies and only accept things that give them quick and pleasant doses of dopamine.
How can we help our consciousness to form more complex, meaningful and critically questioned thoughts? In principle, it’s very simple: we give our consciousness enough time for sustainable thought complexes and cultivate a more effective way of dealing with information by regulating and reducing information so that the brain has the opportunity to process the information consciously and not lose it to automatisms in the subconscious. Take the necessary time for reflection and support the critical mind by considering and treating as many factors as possible one after the other, instead of trying to process them all at the same time and thus constantly overloading your cognitive abilities. We know where this is leading: to the consciousness zombie apocalypse.

Programatic Memory

Once habits are ingrained through repeated practice or when an activity consistently triggers our reward center, they become stored in our procedural memory as automated sequences. Once placed there, we no longer must consciously think about the complex details of carrying out this activity. From now on it will be carried out energy-savingly and automatically by our subconscious.

To initiate a mental program flow, the key is a suitable trigger pattern associated with it. Internal behavioral programs with farily complex trigger patterns are less likely to be called than programs with simple thought patterns. Simple patterns can be single words, a simple visual perception, smell or touch, or an acoustic stimulus that triggers an appropriate reaction. If an action is carried out often enough through this trigger pattern, it becomes a learned automatism.

One of the functions of the critical mind is to act as a gatekeeper of the programmatic memory and to clarify whether a program sequence with a corresponding trigger pattern can initially be saved.
The sneaky thing, however, is that subtle, inconspicuous behavioral patterns often arise that our critical mind does not (yet) consider to be dangerous and thus allows these behavioral programs to be incorporated into our programmatic memory without reflection. This is especially true if the program sequences stimulate our pleasure center through reward at the end.

By repeating it frequently and consistently, this inconspicuous behavior becomes more and more relevant to our subconscious and therefore gains in value. Depending on the value of this behavioral program, dopamine is released as a reward after successful execution and confirmation of the program flow – even if it did not go perfectly – which stimulates our pleasure center.
One of the strongest automatisms in our psyche comes into play: the consistency principle. It helps us to always stick to the usual program sequence as closely as possible and in a relatively short time the value of the behavioral program is so great that it becomes very difficult for our critical mind to question its functionality and meaningfulness, because our ego becomes this valuable asset protect and make critical questioning of the program flow extremely difficult.
The program executed can be very simple or contain very complex behaviors. Simple trigger patterns are often experienced in reactive behaviors when one’s own personality has previously been questioned, attacked or injured. The ego then usually reacts very quickly with defensive reactions in order to protect the supposedly valuable and long-developed personality.

On the other hand, complex automated program sequences are usually created with a lot of effort over a long period of time, which makes them appear very valuable for one’s own worldview – regardless of whether they make sense or are nonsensical and irrational. The only decisive factor here is whether you are sufficiently convinced of the program flow and whether you get the longed-for good feeling of reward in the pleasure center at the end.
It is therefore easy to see that our critical mind plays a significant role in the development of behavioral habits. This means that he should check the different aspects and influences against each other to ensure that only the truly useful skills are anchored in the subconscious. The goal is that these skills can later be quickly and efficiently recalled by consciousness without the need for re-examination.

Therefore, it’s crucial, particularly with automated program processes and learned skills, to consistently and critically evaluate our consciousness before the program is finalized. Once a skill or behavior is established and stored in our subconscious as a program process, it becomes challenging to alter. Learning is an ongoing process!

Needs

Our entire physical and psychological well-being depends on our well-coordinated system of needs, which fuel our motivations depending on the beliefs and value of the respective need.
Maslow has with his vivid Needs Pyramid developed a list of priorities that should show which needs should normally be served to what extent, or how strong they work. The most important needs in the area of deficit needs are the basic physical needs, the security needs followed by the social needs – the satisfaction of which generally keeps us healthy and physically viable. Followed by the two growth needs, the individual need and the self-realization need, which serve to develop us into a strong, individual personality and drive us to extraordinary abilities.
Pragmatically speaking, the needs serve purely our survival or the feeling of pleasure – even the social need. The social need creates in us the urge to socialize with the aim of all kinds of partnerships that serve our ego directly or indirectly and make our lives easier, more pleasant and more worth living in different ways.

Clearly, one cannot only look at needs from a purely instinctive perspective, but must also consider the many more complex sub-needs that we humans develop with our higher mental abilities, which creates even more complex challenges with the psychological processing and shaping of our needs – but more on that later.
As strong as needs may be on us, there are two veto forces that can confuse our needs and greatly influence priorities, sometimes in unhealthy ways. On the one hand, this is our value system within our framing and, on the other hand, our ego. Our critical mind is particularly challenged with these two.

Seeing needs is an artform

When it comes to needs, the critical mind has the task of looking closely at which needs are meaningful needs that ensure our survival and subsequently allow us to grow physically and mentally, and which of them are artificially created in order to perhaps appeal a little too much to the feeling of pleasure without providing deeper added value Generate us, or are even destructive for us?
Artificially created needs are, for example, feelings created by often repeated advertising that convince us that sweets, alcohol, or particularly great products give us a feel-good effect, or that we need a product to make us feel a certain way (feel good , feeling strong, feeling superior, etc.). But also all the acquired needs that come from our earliest childhood and formative experiences that have strongly influenced our needs in the past.

Ideally, we will more or less consciously prefer to satisfy the deficit needs (basic needs, security needs and social needs) and only then the growth needs (individual needs, self-realization needs).
In a real world, however, there are rarely ideal cases because our needs are very much shaped by our framing and our value system.
Our perspective on things is primarily shaped by our parents and other authorities who influenced us when we were young. We have learned to filter out all irrelevant elements, to ignore them and not take them into account in our decision-making (selective perception). The need for security is strongly influenced by values that we receive from our parents and thus shape our framing. This very easily creates artificial fears, which are often a projection of the fears of those in authority.

When it comes to needs, the critical mind not only has a lot to do, it also depends on our knowledge and experience of consciously dealing with different situations, which only becomes established in us after a certain age and wealth of experience. Normally, a critical view of things develops more intensively and constructively from the age at which we start to question things, when some kind of disagreement and thus a conflict arises. Depending on the personal nature of the issue, the conflict then develops a value and a possible motivation to deal with the conflict.
Only when a topic represents a personal value for us, i.e. is really important to us personally – because we have an unmet need – will the motivation to deal with it increase. Depending on how well we can make ourselves understood or have learned to translate motivations into actions, we will try to resolve this conflict because we feel the need to. Whether the conflict can be successfully resolved usually depends on how convincingly we have solved the situation verbally, non-verbally or through actions for ourselves and for everyone involved and how our needs have been sufficiently satisfied.
On the one hand, the critical mind has the complex task of checking whether the framing and the value system it contains do not influence our view of the situation and thus our needs. We have left out the strongest veto systems, emotions and instincts.

The second strong need veto is our ego, which primarily confuses the priorities of the needs and prefers the growth needs (individualism and self-realization) and neglects the deficit needs. People often make great sacrifices to protect their self-image and prioritize their ego.
The critical mind is in direct competition with none other than ourselves. It has the important task of maintaining the balance between our deficit needs and our growth needs so that we do not destroy ourselves if possible.

Risk Assessment

Just as with needs, the critical mind is an essential monitoring system in our risk assessment to determine whether a risk is a real risk that threatens us within causal relationships or not.
This is exactly where it gets tricky, because there are two systems that define or influence our risk assessment. On the one hand, our instinct, which uses our brain stem to quickly assess the risks in a very rudimentary way, whether we flee or attack, and the much slower but much more complex system of security needs with the correspondingly linked values within our framings and emotions in combination with the security need programs imprinted in our programmatic memory, which are executed according to the pattern (and value) associated with them.

Normally our first, instinctive, quick assessment is relatively reliable and gives us a corresponding feeling of a threat. If an initial assessment does not represent a real threat, but the second, more complex system of framing (needs, values, automatic programs) turns an originally instinctively non-threatening perception into a learned danger, the initial threat assessment can turn around 180° and suddenly something becomes definite perceived as a danger. In addition, an internal conflict develops because our instincts tell us something different than what we have learned.
This conflict should be an indication to our critical mind that our framing is misinterpreting the assessment of a threat and influencing our behavior. Whether our critical assessment can prevail depends on our knowledge and experiences: our self-confidence – trust in ourselves.

Supposed dangers caused by external influences pose a major problem for our mindset, as do cognitive biases that trigger our need for security. Often it is fear that results from these learned dangers and makes us very easily influenced. It doesn’t take much to feel fear. Some examples are insecurity caused by internal conflicts, fear of failure, fear of disappointment, fear of the vulnerability of our ego, fear of social ostracism, fear of loss of authority, fear of resources, etc.

Fear is the strongest of our basic emotions, which strongly influences our actions because it can either massively strengthen or weaken our thoughts and limit our ability to make decisions.
There are countless fears that cloud the initial instinctive risk assessment through framing and force us to take actions and behaviors that often do not make much sense and make us very vulnerable to influences of all kinds.

When assessing risks, the critical mind now has the task of reality-checking possible emerging dangers. The ego plays a big role here again, because the first thing that is always considered is whether something represents a danger, and the next thing that is sought is the ego’s expectation of benefit or pleasure. The critical mind should check whether the supposed pleasure gained from avoiding danger is real or only serves as a lure for other motives and needs that only lead us to believe that there is danger because, for example, we have learned it that way or because we Maybe an advertisement or a person in a situation wants to convey this through persuasion.

The various persuasion techniques (Persuasion) used by jugglers, advertising, politicians, etc Not falling for the bait is a tough, complex task for our critical judgment and requires us to be highly attentive to recognizing and escaping them.

On the other hand, fear can also be a strong motivator that creates the appropriate incentives that one strives for in order to deal with the fear-triggering elements and to solve them in order to ultimately get the pleasure from defeating the fear or the fear-triggering element. The risk assessment and the associated experiences about the risk are essential for a realistic assessment. If you have little experience, risks are assessed differently than if you have a lot of experience. With little experience, risk can be underestimated or overestimated. On the other hand, even with experience with risk assessment, a realistic estimate does not always result – it always depends on how you have processed the experience and what you have learned from the experience. It also depends heavily on the general character type – i.e. the characteristics – how one deals with experiences and how well the risk assessment works.

Processing Emotions

How to properly deal with your own emotions is a mammoth task in itself, in which our critical thinking skills also play an important role. Because emotions are extremely important to us. They always have a reinforcing or dampening effect on the mood and performance of our consciousness, subconscious and of course on our entire body through the hormones released.
When emotions develop – we usually feel this quite well – the critical mind has the task of deciding whether an emotion is justified, whether the impulse can be followed or whether it would make more sense to channel the emotions by weighing up the situation and the context to redirect because otherwise we could suffer mental or physical disadvantages.

In contrast to suppressing and repressing emotions, when we process emotions effectively we deal with them consciously and take care of our feelings.
Every time we suppress feelings, our subconscious will notice this and allow this feeling to build up ever greater negative energy, which, after a long period of time has been pent up and uncontrolled, will come out of us in one way or another and force us to behave irrationally .

The methods used to process emotions can be determined by various factors. Depending on the situation, a moderate verbal approach may be more appropriate than redirection through physical activities such as sports, going for a walk or even holding back emotions for a short time and at the same time reducing the intensity of an internal emotion through detailed verbal interaction about it. So it’s better to first talk about our emotions and find appropriate ways to express them.

We could also reflect on why certain emotions arose in a situation. Especially if we have the impression afterwards that we were helpless at the mercy of these emotions and were unable to channel them properly. You can try to localize the origin of an emotion, the word, the gesture, the situation that led to it and to pay more conscious attention to the triggering elements in the future. Maybe you can steer the situation in a different direction so that uncontrolled and unwanted emotions cannot arise in the first place.

Often it is reacting too quickly and directly to a situation because the ego wants to defend its worldview. This usually happens when self-confidence struggles to find a good balance with an ego that is too dominant. Our critical mind just needs enough time to process emotions. More on the time factor later.

The Criticism System

Whenever one of the mentioned mental control systems comes into play – and it is often a combination of these systems – a competition begins between the critical mind in self-consciousness versus our self-image versus our external worldview that lies dormant in our subconscious.

The combination of ego, i.e. our dream self, and self-confidence, i.e. the real me with all its strengths and weaknesses, results in the self-image, or self-concept, which results in our entire world view. Basically our personal bubble that we find ourselves in. Everything that makes us who we are – all our fantasies combined with our real self.
The critical mind is our ability to reflect critically on ourselves and to question our views, our self-image and our worldview. However, the greatest opponent of the critical mind is our ego. And that is important and right, because our ego is our strongest motivator in all situations.

But criticism of one’s own personality is one of the most essential functions for the most important need for our personal growth, i.e. our personality development – the need for self-realization.
If the need for self-realization and thus our ego is not sufficiently satisfied, this has a negative impact on our self-confidence, which on the one hand damages our critical mind and, on the other hand, poses the risk that our ego will try to compensate for every failure and that behavior will develop that leads to a downward death spiral sets in motion that can throw our entire psyche out of balance. This may sound drastic and like a personal doomsday scenario, but it is even if you don’t pay attention to the harmonious interaction of your own mental systems.

What Influences And Suppresses The Critical Mind?

The Ego

What prevents us most from forming an honest critical opinion is our ego.
The most valuable thing in our consciousness is our self-image, the self-worth within our worldview, interpreted through our framing that is perfectly tailored to us. Our ego will always try to protect this world view and our self-image and nip any doubts about authenticity or its value in the bud because we are afraid of having to give up our painstakingly built ego. When we attempt to challenge our worldview, our ego will employ various rationalization tactics to persuade our critical mind that our worldview is entirely valid. It is shaped by our values, which have arisen through our experiences. And we are absolutely convinced of it, there is no doubt about it. The more dominant the ego is, the more our ego will suppress our ability to criticize and reflect and the more convinced we are of our worldview.
Because all of our needs are driven by our ego’s instinct for self-preservation, our focus will always be on the strongest stimulus created by the need at hand. If the incentive becomes big enough, the motivation to take an action arises. The greater the need, the stronger the focus on it and our critical mind will find it difficult to question this need accordingly. Especially when we have a strong need for security because we see our ego – or our worldview – threatened.
Only our self-confidence can protect our ego from becoming too dominant and challenge us with critical questioning without causing fear. With appropriate self-confidence, it is no longer necessary to protect our ego, because through appropriate real personal experiences (not just theories or stories of others) we have learned to deal with challenges and learned about our weaknesses and strengths and hopefully found methods to accept both and perhaps possibilities recognized for optimization.
📜 Upcoming article: The Power Duo Ego and Self-Confidence (Subscribe Newletter to get informed)

Emotions

When our mind perceives events and activates familiar patterns that challenge our worldview, it initiates internal conflicts, subsequently evoking emotions.
Emotions primarily reinforce our existing and emerging thoughts and direct our focus to them. This reinforcement (and association) through emotions blocks critical thinking, which would probably allow us to assess the current situation we find ourselves in much more pragmatically.
As long as you are emotionally aroused and the corresponding neurotransmitters are shooting through your brain and a cocktail of hormones is circulating through your bloodstream, the focus is on the emotion-triggering elements of your thoughts. The focus narrows and perception is greatly reduced, like a horse’s blinders. This limits the efficiency and effectiveness of the critical mind.
Simply becoming aware of emotions and processing them accordingly could help you deal with these situations better.

Cognitive Bias

The confirmation bias is one of many mental errors that occur , because we tend to seek out or accept information that confirms our existing beliefs while ignoring or rejecting contradictory information. Here the protection of our worldview through our ego plays an influencing role. This can limit critical thinking because we only look for answers within ourselves instead of being open to different perspectives from outside and engaging with the opinions of others.
Our brains tend to process information in certain ways, which can lead to various cognitive biases, misinterpretations, misconceptions and misunderstandings. Examples include the anchoring effect (overweighting initial information), the availability heuristic (judgments based on readily available information), and selection bias (only choosing information that supports our opinion), to name just a few.

There are more than 180 different cognitive biases known to the psyche that can cloud or distort our decision-making and perception, which often occur in combination and turn us into mindless zombies if we are not aware of them.
Some cognitive biases arise from our individual needs and the need for self-realization, i.e. our ego (instinct, urge to survive, pleasure center) and a strong focus on ourselves. Others are effects of our programmatic system of automatisms, which are intended to make our lives easier and optimize and simplify thought processes, to save as much energy as possible. Some relate to our learned values, i.e. framing and how we interpret and filter things out. Others affect our psyche through our sensory perceptions.

Automatism

When it comes to optimizing thought processes, automation is usually a concept of success. Our natural automatisms are often triggered by extrinsic methods, e.g. Through advertising, marketing, politics or people who take advantage of our automatisms. If our critical mind is not attentive, it manages to activate these unconscious automatisms, which means that we can be influenced very easily. Often it is simply an overload of the mind that reduces the ability of our critical mind to check misguided or externally controlled automatisms for meaningfulness.
An example is group conformity, which is triggered by various automatisms such as social proof and the sympathy effect. The tendency to conform to a group’s opinions or behavior can suppress critical thinking. This can lead to accepting information that is popular in the group without critically questioning it.
The automatisms in particular are both a blessing and a suffering for our consciousness. We are bombarded every day with a flood of information that our minds can hardly cope with consciously, which is why there are automatisms that work in the background – i.e. the subconscious. In his book Influence, Cialdini explains very clearly how automatisms affect us.
A well-functioning critical mind is therefore absolutely necessary for a well-functioning mind that cannot be easily deceived.

Fast Thought Processes

Our brain often uses fast thinking processes (System 1), which based on experience and automated assumptions. These processes can lead us to accept what is superficial without analyzing more deeply. (see Cognitive Bias)
When we decide quickly, we trigger our reward system and our brain get it’s feel-good-dopamine-shot.

Oversimplification

Our brains tend to simplify complex problems to make quick decisions. This can lead to superficial conclusions that do not take into account all relevant aspects. (see Cognitive Bias)
When we simplify, we also come to a decision quite quickly, which in turn triggers the reward system and releases dopamine, which gives us a pleasant feel-good effect.
➼ A frequently occurring bias is Occam’s Razor

Echo Chambers, Group Dynamics and Social Media

Consuming information from homogeneous sources and immersing ourselves in social media can lead us to be in echo chambers and are only confronted with similar opinions. This inhibits the ability to critically analyze.
In homogeneous groups, the social pressure to join the majority is often strong (automatism social proof). Members may be reluctant to express their opinions if they differ from the community. This can lead to critical thinking being suppressed in favor of group conformity. If there is a lack of diverse perspectives in homogeneous groups, critical discussions may occur less frequently. Ideological groups such as faith communities may tend to select information that confirms their views and avoid information that is contradictory. This may expose members to a limited range of views, which can hinder the development of critical thinking.

Modern social media has developed highly manipulative techniques in how information is presented. The likes a person received and and gives to others produces dopamine in our reward system which leads to commitment and loyalty to the social network. Interest groups create echo chambers where appropriate opinions are preferred and manipulative advertisements are intended to trigger emotional reactions that cause people to act impulsively and reactively instead of making rational decisions. Social media can be a dangerous terrain for our psyche if we’re not aware of its underlying persuasion mechanics which can turn off our critical mind in a blink of an eye!
Read more about how to deal with social media and not get addicted in the article _article about social media_.

Stress, Fatigue, Physical Deficits

High levels of stress or fatigue can deplete the cognitive resources of the brain and diminish the ability for careful consideration and analysis. Similarly, general mental health conditions of the brain should not go unmentioned when it comes to reducing critical thinking. The purely physical, bodily health is far too often underestimated in the evaluation of mental health and cognitive performance.

How To Train Our Critical Thinking Skills?

Effective critical reflection demands quite a bit from us. Questioning what we perceive with our senses is somewhat easier for our minds than self-criticism of the mindset itself. Two factors are crucial: time and values.

Time

Mental overload is one of the main factors why our mind relinquishes its functionality to automatism. By consciously taking enough time for considerations, especially during perceptions, we increase the chance to critically assess situations more easily, thus arriving at more genuine and reasoned conclusions.

Values

If our mind has enough time available, it is also easier to question what values the perceived elements represent for us and why we have these values.
How did these values come about? Did they come about through our own experiences or through narratives, through stories from others who cleverly stimulated our needs? We will notice that very few of the values we have arose from our own experiences, but were simply learned. We could become aware that values acquired from childhood are, in the best case, ok as base value, but are not set in stone and it may be necessary to modify, expand and question them.

Simply through knowledge together with practical application, we train our awareness of the causal relationships and thus our critical mind. When we understand how something works through practical experience and know the outcomes, it becomes harder to convince us of a different opinion because we comprehend the interrelations. It becomes our personal experience, something no one can take away from us, strengthening our self-confidence and reducing fears.

➼ The essence of forming the critical mind is to be aware that nothing is certain.

When we are confronted with situations that challenge us, it usually results in experiences – regardless of the outcome. What matters is what we personally make of the outcome and how we deal with the result.
We could try to exclude as many elements as possible that could influence our critical mind so that we have the best possible learning effect for our experiences. It’s like any training – repetition forms a lasting memory and thus a well-developed and meaningful automatism that we can use reliably and without having to think about it in detail when we need it.

The Balance of Ego Vs Self-Confidence

We might ask ourselves whether emotions are surfacing because our ego has been hurt, or because our personality or worldview has been questioned, or perhaps our abilities? If we feel attacked or hurt by this, it may be that our self-confidence is not strong enough and cannot cope with the dominance of the ego. There is an imbalance between ego and self-confidence.
When the ego exerts greater dominance over self-confidence, it becomes resistant to self-critique, as it continually seeks to safeguard its cherished self-image. Only when self-confidence is strong enough to give the mind security can the critical mind question all mental systems of the mind, because we are strengthened by our self-confidence to approach ourselves critically in order to optimize our mind.
The challenges are usually these little verbal attacks from outside that challenge our minds. We should also try to recognize small injuries and not swallow them. Once we acknowledge these inner wounds, we can begin to learn how to manage them. A conscious approach, especially to our vulnerability and attack, can help to recognize contextual connections from our experiences that make us more resilient and strengthen our self-confidence.

Processing Emotions

When emotions arise, our critical mind is confused. Emotions can have a strengthening or weakening effect on our thoughts and distort the actual context. As a result, the critical mind could see contexts too critically or judge them critically enough.
Emotions need time to cool down. We shouldn’t suppress or bottle them up, because that will only result in them bursting out of us when we don’t expect them and then we can no longer control them at all. The distance from a situation can help us to no longer be so strongly influenced by the acute cocktail of emotions and we can think about what contexts led to the emotions. Was it perhaps words or phrases, gestures, activities or sensory perceptions that triggered us emotionally in some way?
There are many methods of using emotional energy, redirecting it or expressing it in another form. Sport, exercise, art, singing, laughter, conversations – everyone can find their own way of processing emotions to give our critical mind the chance to work effectively when we need it.

After we have become aware of the essential mental systems and have expanded our wealth of experience, we will recognize contexts much more easily and quickly. We will find greater value in investing more energy in a critical mind and coming to convictions a little more thoughtfully, or simply not coming to a conviction because some thoughts or perceptions just don’t fit well enough. Because if you want to convince us of something, then please make an effort!

➼ The critical mind is characterized by skepticism and doubt of conviction!

Increased Attention

The essence of developing our critical mind is correctly assessing when increased attention makes sense.
It’s a big challenge for our minds to justify the value of increased energy expenditure just to make us critically look at ourselves. Only through a strong affirmation do we want to develop into mental superhumans and achieve great benefits for ourselves and those around us, which allows us to tap into our mental reserves.
But as already mentioned at the beginning, the critical mind not only requires a lot of energy, but a lot of time to cope with the flood of information. Unfortunately for the Critical Mind, it rarely gets the time it needs to adequately process information.
There is no optimal method, but we can help our organism increase attention so that we can process more information. This includes, on the one hand, nutritious and healthy eating and of course physical exercise, but also simple things like social contact and general openness and challenges to our self-confidence.
But the essential thing for increased attention is a well-trained, quick focus on relevant things. Not only our eyes should sharpen the focus, but all of our senses are asked to direct attention to relevant perceptions and thus provide the brain with the corresponding optimized input. Concentrating on the essentials without losing awareness of surrounding events would be a desirable approach. Unessential elements are perceived by the subconscious anyway and are sometimes used in later decision-making.
There is nothing more important than reliable automatisms that expand, clarify and consolidate our abilities, especially if they can withstand a critical examination of our minds.

➼ Precise focus is crucial for increased attention!

Conclusion: Opportunity For More Critical Thinking

Critical thinking requires conscious effort and the ability to oversee all mental mechanisms in the mind, to process emotions well, to be willing to self-reflect and to be open to differentiated perspectives. These elements can be challenging in a world full of distractions, influences and simple, automated thought patterns. However, the ability to identify and overcome these obstacles is key to promoting critical thinking.
Now you might ask yourself what the personal benefit of critical thinking is.

The critical mind is the most important system that can question the value system and the value assignments in our framing.
If we find it valuable, we can learn to critically examine the behavior of those around us, particularly our own.
It helps to develop a healthy mindset that protects us from allowing useless and harmful automatic mechanisms into our subconscious.
Our personal values are shaped from birth. They define our framing, which “beautifully filters” our worldview and pushes everything into the background that does not fit our frame or our point of view. If we are lucky, our parents have sensitized us to use our critical mind to find out what is valuable and meaningful to us and what is not. Maybe they even let us experience contexts that could help us satisfy our needs later in life and make us happier and less controlled by others.

It is essential to understand that values can all too easily be manipulated by external influences. There are countless opinions that could easily create artificial values and lead us down the wrong path. It is important to recognize frames that push us into dependencies by arousing emotions and uncontrollably addressing our innermost needs.
By becoming aware of and questioning such influences, influences, opinions and distorted values, we train our critical mind and recognize influences before they can creep into our subconscious.

So it all depends on the Critical Mind, whether we are an easily seduced, remote-controlled, spineless meatbag who is convinced of himself and his ego and is easily convinced by a lot of opinions, hangs on the every word of others, or whether we go through life intelligently, critically and curiously with our eyes open.

I look forward to a lively discussion in the comments!

    ✎ Patrick