How Reasonable Are You? Critical Thinking Test for Social Issues

When people debate about social issues, many of them do not use good reasoning or argue based on facts. They may not even listen to the other side carefully. The following ten questions are to test your ability to reason and analyze based on what is given (not to test specific knowledge). They are not based on any country so you can imagine it is a country that we do not know. And they do not mention any specific kind of people, in order to allow you to not be influenced by real issues and think objectively. Answers are given in the middle and the end.

1. Race A is more prevalent in colleges than Race B. Why is this the case?

A. Colleges are very possibly racist.

B. People of race B do not try hard enough to earn better academic and other kinds of achievement. If they try harder, they will be able to get in, just like people of race A.

C. Without further information, there can be no inference.

2. Person X: "I do not think same-sex marriage is a good idea." What do we know about Person X?

A. Person X is religious.

B. Person X hates people who are gay/lesbian.

C. Both A and B.

D. Without further information, there can be no inference.

3. The following statement is made by Politician A: 

"I support the tax reform. And of course Politician B refuses to support the tax reform that would improve the life of the less privileged. He is Race X. "

What do we know from this?

A. The argument is prejudice against a race and is not sound. 

B. Politician A is probably right. We just need to confirm whether Politician B is of race X and whether people of race X tend to be the privileged ones.

C. Without further information, there can be no inference.

4. Person A is of Gender A and Person B is of Gender B. They have the same position at the same company, but Person A gets a higher monthly wage. We can say that...

A. Person B faces discrimination based on gender.

B. Person B does not face any discrimination.

C. Without further information, there can be no inference.

5. Most people of Religion A pray to the moon every night. Person C is of Religion A. Does Person C pray to the moon every night?

A. Yes.

B. No.

C. Probably. We do not know.

______________________

Answers (1-5): 

1. C. 

A or B could be possible but there is no evidence that supports neither of them. A possible reason why there more students of Race A than Race B can that the general population of Race A is higher than Race B, so the ratio of the races simply represents the general population.

2. D.

Although it is possible that Person X hates gays/lesbians, it is also possible that Person X simply thinks marriage should belong to heterosexual couples. Person may also support same-sex civil union but not marriage. And we do not know if Person X is against it based on religion neither.

3. A.

Race, which refers to skin color and facial features, does not determine someone's political beliefs or values. It is not possible to test someone's real motive behind a position.

4. C. 

It is possible that Person A produces/sells more than Person B so naturally the company pays Person A a higher wage.

5. C
If we knew that ALL people of Religion A pray to the moon every night, then Person C must do too. But we only know that MOST of them do.

______________________

6. According to a reliable source, 5% of the population owns more than 70% of the wealth of the whole country. Does this mean the system (i.e. the law, the legal system and/or the political system) is unjust?

A. Yes.

B. No.

C. Probably. We do not know.

7. According to a reliable study, teenagers aged between 11 and 15 who are raised by parents that are categorized to be Type A by the society, report to have less self-esteem and fewer friends, compared to other teenagers. What do we know from this result?

A. Type A people are inherently not suitable to be parents, for some reason.

B. Type A people are not good at parenting.

C. This is simply a coincident.

D. None of the above.

8. Person C: "Person D has done Action X against me."

Person D: "I swear I have not."

Has Person D done Action X against Person C?

A. Yes.

B. No.

C. Without further information, there can be no inference.

9. At the office of a governmental department that handles and distributes social safety net benefits, Person D is told by an official that "you are a person of Race A so we cannot give you the financial aid." What do we know from this?

A. Person D faces discrimination based on race and it is illegal.

B. Person D faces discrimination based on race if it is illegal.

C. Person D does not discrimination based on race if it is legal.

D. None of the above.

10. In the past month, on one of the biggest news channels, FAC, we have seen already 5 cases of homicide committed by immigrants (a mix of legal and illegal immigrants) this month already. In contrast, on FAC, we have only seen 1 case of homicide committed by a native-born citizen. The proportion of all immigrants is only 10% of the whole population, and the other 90% are native-born citizens. We can say that...

A. Immigrants commit more homicide than native-born citizens; therefore, we know that they tend to be more violent and brutal.

B. We do not know if immigrants tend to be more violent/brutal or not. We should get more information from other news channels, and/or get the official statistics from the government.

C. Immigrants are definitely not more violent or brutal than the native-born. Immigrants contribute to the diversity of a country.

______________________

Answers (6-10): 

6. C.

It is possible that the 5% are much more innovative, skilled, entrepreneurial, better at investing or handling finances. Or perhaps the system favors them. We do not know.

7. D

We do not know whether A or B is true. They can be true, or false. One possibility is that people of Type A (e.g. people from a specific town/village, an industry, etc.) tend to face discrimination in the society so teenagers from those household tend to face discrimination too, and thus they have less self-esteem and fewer friends.

8. C.

There is no evidence to prove who is telling the truth.

9. D.

No matter what the law says, we can determine whether someone is discriminated based on race. 

10. B.

We do not know the total number of homicides committed by native-born citizens and immigrants. The news cannot tell us that and their reporting can possibly be partial. If for whatever reason (e.g. culture/education), immigrants really tend to commit more homicide, then we can probably conclude that the immigrants, in general, tend to be more violent and brutal.

______________________

The takeaway is: sometimes we jump to conclusion very easily when we do not have enough information to tell us what is happening or what causes what.

Even if you have gotten a high score, you should ask yourself if you really think like that when real life context is applied.

*If you do not agree with the answers, feel free to talk to me.

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