Six Common Errors In Critical Thinking Analysis

This week’s reading of the College Orientation Experience discusses six “common errors in judgment that interfere with effective critical thinking”. (Bethel University, 2013, p. 4) Three of the six discussed were stereotypes, snap judgments, and halo effect. (Bethel University, 2013) Stereotyping a person or groups is something I think we all do. Children learn at an early age from their parents how to put people in categories. Sometimes I think we define those categories as either good or bad based on different characterizations. Based on my experience as a police officer we are sometimes very quick to put certain people in a box. Often times we label people unwarranted based off of our daily stereotypical beliefs. We judge people by how they

Often we are stereotyped as being aggressive or bullies. Most of us are just the opposite. We do not enjoy taking people to jail, but it is a necessary evil. Helping people is truly the motivator for the majority of the police officers I know. Due to the fact that good news is no news for the media we are usually only displayed in a negative way when one bad apple decides to show his or her true colors. Ironically, we do not all eat doughnuts either. At least not while in uniform. I say that because I have heard my share of cop and doughnut jokes in my 22 years in law enforcement. Therefore, I choose not to eat doughnuts in public while in uniform. Stereotyping people has an effect on everyone and can sometimes affect our decisions we make about ourselves. By knowing that we do not like to be judged you would think it would be easy to stop judging

The College Orientation Experience defines the halo effect as “a tendency to label a person good at many things based on one or two qualities”. (Bethel University, 2013, p. 4) One example that comes to mind in my profession is during employee evaluations. I have seen many supervisors take one good incident regarding an officer and make the assumption that they do everything well, therefore overrating the employee. (Bethel University, 2013) They forget all the write-ups, complaints, sick abuse, or tardies that took place with that employee. They only focus on that one event. I have wasted my breath many times trying to convince another supervisor that Officer Potato Head did not hang the moon and even had the documentation to prove it. Many times certain supervisors will overrate the employee simply because they have been friends for years. Having that friendship can sway who gets what assignment or special detail. Often times this affects morale within the department because officers know when that