There are two basic categories of beliefs, core and dispositional.  Which one is defined here: beliefs that people have not actively engaged in but rather judgements that they make based on their knowledge of related subjects when they encounter a proposition.

Trait of Critical Thinkers where person is open and receptive to all ideas and arguments, even those with which they may disagree – reserving judgement on the message until they have examined the claims, logic, reasoning, and evidence used.

Peer Testimony comes from ordinary people who have firsthand experience with a topic and gives a more personal viewpoint.

What type of graph is represented in the image?  

“You should vote for the bill because you are a democrat.  Only bad democrats wouldn’t vote for it.”

Trait of Critical Thinkers where person is interested in understanding what is happening in the message and ask questions of the message, breaking it into its individual components and examining each in turn.

When using statistics, you should ALWAYS use the exact number – never round numbers up or down.

What is the term that we defined in class as: an individual’s perception of usefulness, importance, or worth of something.

Trait of Critical Thinkers where the person avoids jumping to conclusion – systematically examine a message looking for certain criteria or conditions in order to accept or reject an idea.

The majority of people believe advertisers should spend more money on billboards, so billboards are objectively the best form of advertisement.