UN·A·BRIDGED is a blog centered around thinking better. Our aim is to use creativity, compassion, and critical thinking to better deal with the world we all live in. Please do not hesitate to leave comments or contact us.
What is “free thinking”?
The term “free thinker” can often be found alongside the word “atheist,” but do these two things always go together? Philosopher Bertrand Russell makes an important distinction about free thinking: it’s a way of thinking and not a particular conclusion. What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but …
Let’s have a better conversation about the Gender Pay Gap
You may have heard that, on average, women earn about 80¢ for every dollar a man earns. While this is technically true, this particular statistic can be a little misleading. You may also have heard that the gender pay gap is a myth, which is also a bit of an overstatement. What exactly is going on?
How these headlines work will shock you. Click here to read more.
Print news media and its online counterparts often make use of a format known as the “inverted pyramid.” Here’s how it works: the most basic parts of the story are contained in the headline if they will fit. Then, in the body of the story, you will find the most significant …
You Are More Creative Than You Realize
Many people, maybe yourself included, do not think of themselves as creative. Part of the problem is that we confuse creativity with artistic ability. You do not have to be a painter, a musician, or a writer to be creative! Odds are, you are more creative than you give yourself credit for. Keep reading to discover what creativity actually looks like, and leave us a comment about a time you were creative!
Mr. Trump’s False Equivalence
Mr. Trump’s repeated misuse of the term “fake news” is an example of what good thinkers call “false equivalence,” and it is blurring legitimate discussion of actual fake news. False equivalence occurs when someone tries to take two things that are not the same thing and try to call them the same thing. A popular version of this you may have seen on the internet involves taking whatever it is someone is against and associating it with Nazi’s. President Trump is doing the same thing by equating news coverage that he finds unfavorable with “fake news.”
On Sermons, Strawmen, and Monkeys
In a 1957 sermon, Dr. W. A. Criswell demonstrated several thinking flaws. His mistakes are a good lesson for us today.
Asexual
Some people just aren’t that into you, or anyone else. At least not in that way.
Rewarding Bad Behavior
What makes us do things? This is a simple question with a variety of complex answers. One of those answers is incentives. An incentive is something that motivates a person to do something. Sometimes, unfortunately, the people setting the incentives mess them up and actually wind up incentivizing behavior that is contrary to what they intended. This is called a perverse incentive.
The Mandela Effect: Science, Superstition, and Memory
I had never heard of the Mandela Effect until a few weeks ago when a coworker brought it up at lunch. She told me of several examples and I was immediately fascinated. The Mandel Effect is when a communal memory of something happening does not match up with archival evidence, …