Comparison: Critical Thinking

Rita got an e-mail forwarded by her friend, Shilpa that she can get a free Tokia cell phone from the leading cell phone company, provided Rita sends a copy of this mail to twenty other persons with a copy to the senior Manager, Sales Division of Tokia. The mail looked authentic with name of Marketing Manager of Tokia at the bottom of the mail. Shilpa said that she had already sent twenty copies of this mail, which included the mail sent to Rita, and a copy to the Sales Manager of Tokia. Rita thought about this and looked up the address of the Marketing Manager of the Tokia Company webpage on the Internet. She then wrote directly to the Marketing Division Manager asking whether the claim in the e-mail message is true. She promptly got a reply that the message is a hoax to promote chain letters and to harass Tokia Company, and that Tokia has no intention to honour that claim in the e-mail message.

This is a definite example of critical thinking. This answer will deal with ideas as to why Rita is a critical thinker and Shilpa is not a good critical thinker.

It says that the mail looked authentic. Although, something seems right a critical thinker’s first aim would be to question it. That shows the passionate drive of a critical thinker in finding out accurate information. Rita did so by looking up the address of the Marketing Manager in the Tokia company webpage. Shilpa did not bother to do so and ended up wasting her time and also the time of twenty other people. On the contrary, Rita wrote directly to the Marketing Division Manager and received a prompt answer that the e-mail message was a fraud.

When Rita received the mail she thought about this. This is an important aspect of a critical thinker and you can’t say the same for Shilpa. Shilpa did not look up the address of the Marketing Manager the way Rita did. This shows an important feature of how Rita thought critically and was disciplined in her thinking. Also, the quest for the truth on Rita’s part was admirable in terms of critical thinking. A critical thinker’s ultimatum is to acquire the truth in any affair. Rita did this and Shilpa did not do so.

Rita was looking for the accuracy of the mail. It is vital to have accurate information because bad selections are made based on false details. When there are inadequate facts, then people will have to go through much trouble and end up getting the wrong answer. This is what happened to Shilpa as opposed to Rita who made sure to get the genuineness of the e-mail checked. Shilpa skipped this crucial step along with several other things that needed to be done when she blindly proceeded to forward the e-mail.