TFY Ch.7 "EVALUATIONS" & EXERCISE

Summary:

Evaluations make judgements about worth on the basis of standards that may be conscious or unconscious. Evaluations are not facts. Factual reports keep the distinction between facts and evaluations clear. Premature evaluations are hasty evaluations that contain unexamined or faulty support. Feelings and expectations affect both our perceptions and our evaluations. Evaluations are used in advertising and journalism to persuade us, sometimes hypnotically, to make positive associations with products and purchase them. Critical thinking requires that we stay alert to manipulative advertising techniques that are most effective when we can be enticed to enter into a trance state. Propaganda uses many sophisticated manipulative techniques of persuasion. One of these is the use of hidden evaluations. A critical thinker knows how to recognize and detach from he influence of propaganda.

Chapter Exercise ( CHAPTER QUIZ P. 209)

True/False

1. TRUE- Evaluations are not facts but judgements based on conscious or unconscious standards.
2. FALSE- Premature evaluations can result from hasty observing and thinking.
3. TRUE- Opinion can be influenced unawares by the use of highly connotative words.
4. FALSE- Evaluations should never be used in writing reviews, such as of films and books.
5. TRUE- Pepeating evaluations, as is done in advertising, can serve as a hypnotic technique.
6. TRUE- A critical thinker notices when evaluations are substituted for facts, information, and evidence.
7. TRUE- Prior expectations influence perceptions and our evaluation of these perceptions.
8. FALSE- Our first reactions, before we have had time to examine the evidence, are always the most reliable.
9.TRUE- To evaluate wisely, we need to observe and think carefully while also being clear about our standards.
10. TRUE- Many advertisements want us to let them do the evaluating for us.