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Critical Thinking Bootcamp: Lateral Reading [1]

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Date: 2023-05-15

Hi folks! Today I’m adding another entry to the Bootcamp series, but to the more general “Critical Thinking” subject rather than a specific bias or fallacy. Today we’re going to talk about a technique known as “Lateral Reading,” what it is, and why you should do it. So let’s get cracking, shall we?

In this digital age, information literacy is critical to the skillset that anyone should have. How to find information, and perhaps even more importantly, how to evaluate information online is crucial. Remember how “Fake News” became a byword not that many years ago?

A lot of librarians teach this aspect of information literacy with checklist type exercises. CRAAP is a common one, for example. CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevence, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose. As far as it goes, it’s a good start when evaluating a source. As long as I’m talking CRAAP, let me take a minute to elaborate on what it means, because it IS a useful tool.

Currency

How old is this? Is it still recent enough to be relevant?

Are the links active?

Relevance

Does this answer my question / give me the information I’m looking for?

Who is the intended audience?

Does the information appear credible?

Authority

Who is the author/creator/sponsor for this information?

What are the author’s credentials?

What are the author’s or website’s affiliations (i.e. what other organizations are they related to, funded by, employed by, etc.)

Is the author qualified to write on this topic?

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or information? (For example, .edu = educational institutions, .gov = government institutions, etc. BE CAREFUL WITH THIS! A given URL is not necessarily an indication of validity).

Accuracy

Is this information subject to review by an editor, or peer reviewed in some way?

Is the information supported by evidence such as references?

Is the language of the information objective, or is it charged with emotion?

Purpose

What is the purpose of this information? To inform? Entertain? To persuade?

Is this intended to be factual or opinion?

Do the author(s) make their purpose clear?

Are there political, ideological, religious, instituational or personal biases evident?

Those are all good things we should have on our radar when looking for information. So, as far as it goes, CRAAP is a useful mental checklist to keep in mind, whether we’re actively searching online for information or just seeing a link shared by someone on social media.

But…that’s not all we can do.

So now I’m finally going to get to the point and am going to talk about Lateral Reading.

LATERAL READING

Most people read a website like they would a page in a book: from top to bottom.

But websites aren’t books. They have embedded links, they have sidebars with more information or with navigation to other parts of the site, etc. And even without embedded links or other navigation tools, there is often a lot of information that can be easily checked online.

Lateral reading is not just reading a webpage, but actively checking it while reading it. After reading a paragraph, you might click a link embedded in that paragraph and check out what is there.

If a paragraph refers to a person, or an event, or a research paper, or something of that nature, open a new tab and search – find out more about those things. Who is this person? Did this event really happen? Is this a legitimate peer-reviewed research paper? And so on.

You can even check what other sites say about the site you’re looking at. Or check the “About” link on the page, if there is one. If it’s a news story, do a search to see if other news outlets are reporting on it, and what they say. The key is, be willing to open new tabs, click links, and follow leads to see if what you’re reading is accurate, or to learn if there are biases in what you’re reading.

This is the method the best fact-checkers use, by the way. Don’t stay on one page. Don’t be afraid to have a dozen open tabs. Don’t be afraid to do your own searches to verify what you’re seeing on one page is supported by other sources.

As you do your lateral reading, by the way, keep your CRAAP (and it’s not the only such information literacy checklist with an acronym, there are others) checklist in mind, and you’ll find yourself much better able to evaluate the information in front of you – and in the end you will very likely end up with a much better understanding of what you’re reading about than if you just read top-to-bottom on the page and moved on.

The online environment today is the Wild West, where literally anyone with a keyboard or smartphone and a wi-fi connection can hold forth on social media, or post in article comments. So it’s more important than ever to use these tools and keep your “radar up.”

If you want to know more about lateral reading, Stanford University has a good educational series of pages and videos about it. Newslit also has more information, as do many other sites. Browse around and test your new skills!

Until next time, folks!

And if you’ve enjoyed reading this, consider partaking of some of my other past entries in my Bootcamp series, wherein I explain a logical fallacy, cognitive bias, or expound upon some other aspect of critical thinking! See below for links!

Prior Bootcamp Installments

Logical Fallacies Bootcamp:

The Strawman

The Slippery Slope

Begging the Question

Poisoning the Well

No True Scotsman!

Ad Hominem

False Dilemma

Non Sequitur

Red Herring

Gamblers Fallacy

Bandwagon Fallacy

Appeal to Fear

The Fallacy Fallacy

Appeal to Personal Incredulity

Appeal to Authority

Special Pleading

Texas Sharpshooter

Post Hoc

Appeal to Nature

Furtive Fallacy

Alphabet Soup

Middle Ground

Relative Privation

Cognitive Bias Bootcamp:

Bystander Effect

Curse of Knowledge

Barnum Effect

Declinism

In-Group Bias

Hindsight Bias

Survivor Bias

Rhyme-as-Reason Effect

Apophenia (& Paradoleia)

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Confirmation Bias

Anchoring Bias

Inattentional Blindness

The Frequency Illusion (AKA the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon)

G.I. Joe Fallacy

Critical Thinking Bootcamp:

Sea Lioning

Occam’s Razor

The Gish Gallop & Brandolini’s Law

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