Fallacies and Cognitive Biases

Sociocentrism can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s social group’s way of thinking and articulating ideas is right and superior to others way of thinking. This way of thinking has in the past led to suffering in society as people subscribing to this way of thinking are able to justify their way of thinking even when they are not right (Law & Chan, 2017a). Examples in the past include the execution of heretics by the Catholic church, slavery, and torturing of native Americans in America and even the mass murdering of Jews by the Nazi Germany government during the second world war.

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In today’s society, sociocentric thinking can easily be seen in the political arena. People ascribing to the same political party, be it democrats or republicans tend to dismiss the views of those in opposing camps. In most cases, this will happen even someone on the opposing side has a valid point of view or argument to put across (Wilke & Mata, 2012). In the end, peoples’ voting pattern will follow party affiliation lines rather than critically looking at the situation and making the best decision. In the event a wrong decision is made, the effects are felt by both spheres of society regardless of where their political affiliations lay.

Over time, sociocentric thinking has proved to have a negative effect on critical thinking. It has led to masses of people failing to question ways of thinking advanced to them without collecting vital information to help them make these decisions often leading to poor decisions in the process (Law & Chan, 2017b). People should be encouraged to think openly and critically so as to evaluate situations before they commit themselves to make decisions. This requires a lot of self-discipline and the ability of one to correct themselves when they are wrong.