The Absence of Critical Thinking Skills and its Effects. Case Study: Vaccine Hesitation

Abstract

The aim of this article is to estimate the relevance of developing a public policy aimed at increasing the importance of critical thinking skills among pupils, students and citizens in general, using the problem of vaccination as a reference. I thus aim to contribute to the possibility of identifying solutions designed to increase the impact of educational activities for the creation of critical thinking skills. Because perhaps the most important cognitive problem in this context is the decision to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2, I use the report on the vaccination problem as a context for assessing the effectiveness of critical thinking, trying to test the hypothesis of reducing vaccine hesitation by using critical thinking. The case study on vaccine hesitation considers the use of the attitude towards vaccination as a potential revealer of critical thinking skills, contributing for the identification of both problems and solutions to remedy them. Critical reflection on critical thinking implies the possibility of being aware of its specific limits. I approach some of the problems of defining critical thinking by suggesting in this way some risks aimed at its use for ideological purposes. I indicate the specific limits of the deficit model, thus contributing to the shaking of common places in the field of causal explanation for vaccine hesitation. I systematize the cognitive errors according to some specific causes and types of solving the existing problems in the specialized literature, thus generating a relevant frame of reference for the debates regarding the public policies in the area.