One cannot expect to make an informed decision about the merits of a political issue unless one has a foundation, that is, some basic information or understanding of subject involved. So the first step in critical thinking involves humility. Understand that it is difficult to think critically about a topic that one knows little about. Secondly, critical thinking requires skepticism. Information in newspapers and books is frequently incorrect, at least partially.
Critical thinkers are humble about their knowledge.
They are convinced that they do not know all the answers, that their information is usually incomplete and biased. They assume the same about others. With some humility I will attempt to give a brief definition and description of critical thinking in the social sciences. A critical thinker in the social sciences is a person who is skeptical of simple or singular explanations to social problems, is mindful of the frequent mistakes people make in using numbers or statistics, actively looks for bias in himself and others, and searches for underlying, faulty assumptions. Let's examine each part of the critical thinking process described above.