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9.5: Questions for Critical Thinking

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    262764
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    icon of person with checkmarkQuestions for Critical Thinking About Authority and Credibility

    • How or why do we decide if someone is an expert and/or authority on a topic?
    • What types of influence do authorities have?
    • What might be expected of us as we become authorities ourselves?
    • How might social, cultural, or personal biases amplify the voices of some authorities and silence others, based on factors such as politics, religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, etc.? How do our own opinions and biases influence our judgments about someone's authority on a topic?
    • How does the context in which we intend to use a source affect our determination of its credibility? Can a source be credible in some contexts but not in others?

    9.5: Questions for Critical Thinking is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Ellen Carey.

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