Applied Critical Thinking 7 — Full Study Notes

This flashcard set covers vocabulary from the Applied Critical Thinking 7 notes, including concepts related to perverse incentives, system types, group dynamics, and problem-solving frameworks like Cynefin.

Deterrence Hypothesis

The assumption that introducing a penalty for a behaviour will produce a reduction in that behaviour.

Perverse Incentive

A rule, reward, or punishment that produces the opposite of its intended behavioural outcome, often making the original problem worse.

Moral Obligation

A felt duty to behave well toward others, driven by internal factors like guilt, shame, or social norms rather than financial considerations.

Social Norm

An unwritten rule that a community or specific group expects its members to follow.

Null Hypothesis ($H_0$)

The assumption that there is no causal connection between two things.

Alternative Hypothesis ($H_1$)

The claim that there is a causal connection between two things.

First Order Effect

The direct, obvious, and intended result of an action or change.

Second Order Effect

An unintended consequence that results from a first order change within a system and is typically not anticipated by the problem-solver.

Trophic Cascade

A phenomenon that occurs when the removal or addition of a top predator causes indirect effects at lower levels of a food chain, altering populations of prey, plants, and other ecosystem elements.

Anthropocentrism

The belief that human beings are the central or most significant entities in the universe, and that all things should be evaluated based on their impact on humans.

Goal Displacement

Occurs when an original goal is replaced by a new goal — typically a procedural or operational one — so that the means to an end becomes an end in itself.

Cultural Norm

A widely shared expectation about values, behaviour, or the nature of the world that operates within a specific cultural group.

Threshold Effect

Occurs when a stimulus, such as a reward or punishment, must reach a minimum level of intensity before it produces a change in behaviour.

Extirpated

A state of being locally extinct, where a species is gone from a specific geographic area but still exists elsewhere.

Feedback Loop

A process that occurs when the output of a system becomes an input that influences the system's future behaviour.

Positive Feedback Loop

A loop in which the output reinforces or amplifies the input, causing a variable to grow stronger or larger over time; essentially an amplifying spiral.

Negative Feedback Loop

A loop in which the output reduces or counteracts the input, causing the system to stabilise around a specific set point; also known as a stabilising loop.

Intended Outcome

The desired result that a problem-solver aims for when design and implementation of an intervention takes place.

System

A set of interconnected parts that interact to form a whole with a specific purpose or function.

Path Dependence

The phenomenon where early choices constrain future options, making it difficult to switch to better alternatives due to accumulated investments, habits, and infrastructure.

Ubiquity

Refers to a technology, system, or norm that is so widely present that it becomes the default standard and makes alternative traction difficult.

Network Effect

The phenomenon whereby a product or service gains additional value as more people use it, where the value is derived from collective adoption.

Groupthink

An excessive form of concurrence-seeking among members of high-prestige, tightly-knit groups, where the desire for harmony overrides the realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Motivated Reasoning

The process of reasoning toward a predetermined conclusion rather than following the evidence.

Bandwagon Fallacy

The logical error of assuming that something is correct, good, or desirable simply because many people believe or do it.

Pluralistic Ignorance

A social phenomenon in which each individual privately disagrees with a norm but assumes others accept it, leading to a maintained illusion of consensus.

Concurrence Seeking

The prioritisation of group agreement and harmony over the rigorous, critical evaluation of alternatives.

Dissent

The expression of disagreement or opposition to a dominant view, policy, or decision within a group.

Unanimity

The state of complete agreement among all members of a group.

Systems Thinking

An approach to problem-solving that focuses on understanding the relationships, feedback loops, and patterns within a system rather than individual components in isolation.

Silver Bullet

A simple, single solution believed to be capable of solving a complex problem entirely on its own.

Solutionism

The ideological tendency to treat every complex problem as having a straightforward technical or procedural solution, ignoring systemic complexity.

Clear System

A domain where cause and effect is obvious to everyone and the right answer is self-evident.

Complicated System

A domain where cause and effect exists but is only visible to experts through analysis, often having multiple correct answers.

Complex System

A domain where cause and effect can only be seen in hindsight, solutions emerge from experimentation, and results are not predictable.

Chaotic System

A short-lived domain with no identifiable cause and effect, even in hindsight, where there is no single right answer.

Emergence

The phenomenon whereby new, complex properties or patterns arise from the collective behaviour of simpler agents following simple rules without central direction.

Agents

The individual parts of a complex system, such as people, animals, or molecules, which follow simple rules.

POSIWTD

An acronym for 'The Purpose Of a System Is What It Does,' indicating that the true function of a system is revealed by its actual outputs rather than its stated goals.

Espoused Theory

What a person or institution says they do, often represented by official stories or mission statements.

Theory in Use

What a person or institution actually does, as revealed by the observed behaviour and output of the system.

Incentive Analysis

A problem-solving approach that identifies the motivations, rewards, and pressures driving agents' behaviour to design interventions that change conditions.

Incrementalism

A problem-solving approach that implements small, gradual changes over time to shift social norms rather than seeking immediate, comprehensive transformation.

Overton Window

The range of policies and ideas that are currently politically and socially acceptable within a given society or cultural context.

Safe-to-fail Experiment

A small-scale, low-risk intervention designed to test a hypothesis in a complex system where failure does not cause serious harm.

Counterfactual Thinking

Reality-constrained imagination that considers how a system would behave under different conditions to understand causes and anticipate second-order effects.

Deference to Authority

A cultural norm where junior members of a group defer to leaders, potentially suppressing descent even when a leader's decision is wrong.

Crew Resource Management (CRM)

A training system that reframes authority as a shared cognitive resource and normalises human error to encourage speaking up and redundant safety procedures.