Why Critical Thinking Is Becoming Rare?

One of the most respected educators recently commented that “we are not teaching critical thinking in the schools. It is a national crisis”. This alarming observation reflects a broader reality: critical thinking skills have been declining, with many people struggling to think deeply and reflectively. The OECD’s 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) recorded the most significant decline in reading and mathematics scores since the assessment’s inception, with many national systems experiencing losses equivalent to three-quarters of an academic year. The 2024 Survey of Adult Skills confirms a similar trend among adults with stagnating or declining literacy and numeracy levels.​

The public cited three main causes for the deficits in critical thinking skills: technology, changing societal norms, and the education system. Modern technology was the most cited reason at 29 percent, but social norms at 28 percent and the education system at 22 percent followed closely behind. This multifaceted decline isn’t merely about losing an intellectual skill but represents a fundamental transformation in how society processes information, forms beliefs, and makes decisions. Part of this is because there has been a decline in critical thinking skills, which are used to form non-biased judgments after collecting much evidence and analyzing information. Instead of questioning and challenging, we have become complacent in what we are told without any pushback.​

True critical thinking requires time, institutional support, and a tolerance for dissent and complexity. In many of the environments where it is most loudly championed, it is often, in fact, quite inhibited. What was once a set of intellectual virtues rooted in Enlightenment skepticism and liberal pedagogy is now often reduced to generic problem-solving strategies, and this depoliticized version of critical thinking no longer threatens dominant ideologies or power structures. Understanding why critical thinking is becoming rare requires examining the educational, technological, cultural, and psychological forces that have converged to make shallow, reactive thinking the norm while deep, analytical thought becomes increasingly exceptional.​

Education Systems Prioritizing Performance Over Thinking

Modern education often emphasizes memorization and standardized test performance over analytical thinking, creative problem-solving, and reasoning. Simply put, individuals aren’t taught why it’s important to think for themselves and to question things through a range of filters including ethics, morals, impact to others and overall consequences. Curriculum constraints mean that critical thinking exercises such as debates, essays, and problem-solving projects are often replaced with rote learning due to time and resource constraints. Teacher training gaps exist where teachers may themselves lack the training or incentives to prioritize critical thinking methodologies in the classroom.​

The traditional education system with its emphasis on rote memorization and standardized testing isn’t helping either. Many teachers are under immense pressure to cover the curriculum quickly and prepare students for exams. As a result, classrooms often prioritize the memorization of facts over the development of critical thinking skills. This emphasis on standardized testing leaves little room for open-ended discussions, critical questioning, or creative problem-solving. Kids learn to regurgitate information but don’t have the tools to assess it or apply it in real-life situations.​

Across much of the Anglophone world, education has shifted toward managerial logics where accountability metrics, standardized testing, and curriculum narrowing have reduced space for open-ended exploration. Subjects that traditionally fostered critical engagement have been marginalized in favor of STEM disciplines framed in narrowly vocational terms. Even within the humanities, there is increasing pressure to justify intellectual work in terms of “impact” or “skills,” leaving less room for speculative, dialectical inquiry. The marketization of education treats students as customers and education as product delivery rather than intellectual development.​

Once the foundation of great education, critical thinking is being edged out of the modern learning experience. Many schools focus on ticking off curriculum checkboxes rather than nurturing thoughtful analysis. Multiple-choice tests encourage surface-level understanding while rigid lesson plans leave little room for curiosity. In this environment, critical thinking in children can become an afterthought. The shift from education as intellectual cultivation to education as credentialing and sorting mechanism has eliminated the conditions necessary for developing genuine critical thinking capacities.​

Technology and Information Overload

With the internet and social media, people are inundated with information, often without tools to discern credible sources from unreliable ones. Algorithm-driven platforms tend to reinforce pre-existing beliefs rather than challenge them, reducing exposure to diverse perspectives. A culture of immediate answers through Google searches discourages the process of deep inquiry and reflective thought. In a post-pandemic world, when we don’t have live interactions with fellow students we miss the banter, thought partnership, debates and opinions being introduced, exchanged and challenged which are all key aspects of how we learn.​

The average American spends 5 hours and 24 minutes on their phone every day. This constant engagement with technology fundamentally alters cognitive patterns making sustained attention, deep reading, and complex analysis increasingly difficult. As kids scroll through endless streams of information without questioning it, they miss out on opportunities to develop the skills necessary for deep understanding. This passive consumption prevents them from engaging in meaningful dialogue, critical analysis, or problem-solving—all skills that are foundational to lifelong success.​

The structure of digital information consumption undermines critical thinking in specific ways. Social media presents information in decontextualized snippets optimized for emotional reaction rather than careful analysis. The endless scroll prevents the pause and reflection necessary for evaluation. Algorithmic curation creates filter bubbles where challenging information never appears. The gamification of engagement through likes and shares rewards provocative content over accurate or thoughtful content. The medium itself shapes cognition toward rapid, shallow, reactive processing incompatible with critical analysis.

Remote siloed learning eliminates the collaborative dimension of thinking where ideas are tested, challenged, and refined through interaction. Critical thinking isn’t purely individual activity but develops through dialogue, debate, and exposure to alternative viewpoints. When learning becomes isolated consumption of content without discussion, the social dimension that sharpens thinking disappears. Students lose opportunities to hear their assumptions questioned, to defend their reasoning, to discover flaws in their logic through others’ perspectives, and to experience the productive discomfort of intellectual challenge.​

Cultural Shift Toward Polarization and Certainty

Being genuinely comfortable with ambiguity and dissonance are essential to critical thinking, but public discourse has grown visibly hostile to such, reinforced by growing democratic polarization. In political, academic, and cultural debates, there is increasing pressure to adopt clearly demarcated positions, to signal allegiance rather than engage in authentic and measured arguments. Without critical thinking, people are more likely to adopt extreme or binary viewpoints of groups leading to societal polarization. They are unable or disinclined to question certain behaviors or actions—whether their own or others—without regard to consequences.​

Dialogues devolve into conflicts and people taking polarized stances as groups rather than coming together to engage in constructive discussions due to the inability to evaluate opposing perspectives rationally and objectively to the benefit of all. Platforms like Facebook often serve as echo chambers reinforcing existing beliefs to such an extent that individuals struggle to understand differing perspectives. Those with opposing views are frequently dehumanized and labeled as inferior. The prevalence of identity politics has led to a situation where respectful conversations are virtually nonexistent, with each faction focused solely on overpowering the other rather than engaging in meaningful dialogue.​

Certainty is worshipped while arrogance is mistaken for wisdom. Everyone has an opinion but few have understanding. Everyone wants to speak but few want to listen. The cultural valorization of strong opinions and confident assertions makes the tentative, questioning stance of genuine critical thinking appear weak or indecisive. In polarized environment, admitting uncertainty or acknowledging merit in opposing views feels like betrayal of one’s tribe. The social cost of nuanced thinking becomes too high, so people retreat to simplified tribal positions that don’t require critical analysis.​

Humility is rare in today’s discourse. To keep asking and to remain intellectually humble in the face of a vast mysterious world requires acknowledging the limits of one’s knowledge. Yet today humility is rare. The internet creates illusion of knowledge where quick searches provide surface information that feels like understanding. The Dunning-Kruger effect flourishes in environments where people can curate information confirming their existing beliefs while remaining ignorant of vast domains of knowledge and complexity they never encounter. Confidence without competence becomes normalized as algorithmic amplification rewards certainty over accuracy.​

The Rise of Misinformation and Decreased Evaluation

A rise in misinformation and “fake news” spreads unchecked as many individuals lack the skills or even the discernment to question and verify the sources and validity of claims. Simplistic narratives and soundbites gain traction over nuanced and evidence-based discourse. People are following the herd. Many individuals fail to investigate the information they encounter and simply accept it as truth. Misinformation from both foreign and domestic sources continues to proliferate online and, perhaps most disturbingly, surrounding health crises.​

The decreased ability to evaluate information represents critical failure in critical thinking. Determining source credibility, assessing evidence quality, recognizing logical fallacies, distinguishing correlation from causation, and identifying bias all require analytical skills that declining education and distraction-heavy environment fail to develop. When people cannot evaluate information, they default to heuristics like popularity, emotional resonance, or alignment with existing beliefs rather than accuracy. This makes them vulnerable to manipulation through well-crafted misinformation designed to exploit these cognitive shortcuts.

The information ecosystem actively rewards misinformation because false information often spreads faster and further than truth. Sensational false claims generate more engagement than nuanced accurate information. The economic incentives of attention economy mean platforms and content creators benefit from maximizing engagement regardless of truth. In this environment, critical thinking becomes disadvantage because carefully evaluating claims is slow, effortful, and often leads to less emotionally satisfying conclusions than compelling narratives offered by misinformation.

The erosion of shared epistemological standards means there’s no longer consensus about what constitutes reliable evidence or valid reasoning. Different groups operate with entirely different frameworks for determining truth, making rational dialogue across differences impossible. When critical thinking standards themselves become contested rather than shared foundation for discourse, the enterprise of rational evaluation collapses. People retreat to tribal epistemologies where what your group believes counts as truth regardless of evidence or logic.

Psychological and Cognitive Factors

To think critically is to risk everything. Your relationships and your role in shaping the world. At the heart of this entire crisis beneath the digital noise, the failing institutions, the cultural polarization, there is something even more insidious. The real reason critical thinking is disappearing is not because people are incapable of it but because they are afraid of what it might reveal. Critical thinking threatens comfortable beliefs, established identities, group memberships, and worldviews that provide meaning and belonging. The psychological cost of genuine critical thinking can feel unbearable when it leads to conclusions that alienate you from community or undermine beliefs central to your identity.​

Cognitive decline is accelerating with mentally stimulating activities decreasing. The reduction in activities that build and maintain cognitive capacity—reading complex texts, solving difficult problems, engaging in substantive conversation, pursuing challenging hobbies—means the mental muscles necessary for critical thinking atrophy. The brain adapts to its environment, and when environment demands only shallow processing, the capacity for deep thinking diminishes. Neural pathways for sustained attention, complex analysis, and abstract reasoning weaken without regular use.​

True thinkers are often quiet, observant, reserved. They know that wisdom grows not from noise but from silence, from contemplation, from deep engagement with complexity. And this is precisely why critical thinkers are often outnumbered and ignored in a culture that rewards speed and spectacle. The slow process of thinking stands little chance. The temporal requirements of critical thinking—time to gather information, consider alternatives, identify assumptions, evaluate evidence, and reflect on reasoning—are incompatible with the pace of modern life and digital communication. When response time is measured in seconds or minutes, the hours or days required for genuine critical analysis become impractical.​

Empathy levels have been declining over the past 30 years especially among younger generations, with a 40% drop in empathy among college students compared to their counterparts 20 or 30 years ago. This decline in empathy relates to critical thinking because understanding different perspectives, considering how others experience situations, and evaluating positions from multiple viewpoints all require empathetic capacity to imaginatively inhabit alternative frameworks. Without empathy, critical thinking becomes mere technique rather than genuine attempt to understand truth from multiple angles.​

Institutional and Systemic Failures

Whatever problems exist in instruction educators see as the fault of students or beyond their control. This abdication of responsibility means institutions that should be developing critical thinking instead blame external factors while perpetuating systems that undermine it. The defensive posture of educational institutions prevents honest examination of how their structures, incentives, and practices actively discourage critical thinking. When those responsible for teaching critical thinking don’t critically examine their own systems, reform becomes impossible.​

The managerial logics now dominating education focus on measurable outputs, efficiency, and standardized processes incompatible with the messy, individualized, unpredictable nature of intellectual development. Critical thinking cannot be standardized, tested reliably, or produced efficiently. It emerges from rich environments with excellent teachers, diverse perspectives, challenging material, and time for exploration. The industrialization of education treats learning as assembly line process producing graduates with credentials rather than cultivating minds capable of independent thought.​

In contemporary educational and cultural discourse, critical thinking is thrown around as a vague good or used as buzzword to decorate curricula or strategic plans. The performative embrace of critical thinking without substantive commitment means institutions claim to value it while implementing policies that undermine it. Critical thinking becomes branding rather than practice, allowing institutions to market themselves as promoting independent thought while actually producing conformity and surface-level processing.​

Societal norms have shifted away from valuing deep thinking, patient analysis, and intellectual humility toward rewarding confident assertions, rapid responses, and tribal loyalty. When culture no longer valorizes critical thinking, individuals lack role models demonstrating it, social rewards encouraging it, or cultural narratives celebrating it. The heroes of contemporary culture are often entertainers, athletes, or influencers rather than public intellectuals, scientists, or philosophers. The shift in who society elevates and celebrates reflects and reinforces the devaluation of critical thinking.​

The Consequences and Path Forward

People are finally waking up to this realization as the political, economic, and cultural state of America has gotten worse over the years. The consequences of declining critical thinking manifest in dysfunctional governance, public health failures, economic irrationality, social fragmentation, and vulnerability to manipulation. Democratic deliberation requires citizens capable of evaluating arguments, assessing evidence, and reasoning about complex policy tradeoffs. Without widespread critical thinking capacity, democracy devolves into tribal conflict where manipulation by demagogues replaces reasoned debate.​

Critical thinking is a fundamental skill that allows individuals to analyze, evaluate, and interpret information objectively and rationally. Its decline threatens every domain of individual and collective life from personal decision-making to professional competence to civic participation. The ability to question assumptions, recognize bias, evaluate evidence, consider alternatives, and reason logically separates effective from ineffective action across all contexts. Societies composed of people lacking these capacities cannot solve complex problems, maintain functional institutions, or adapt to changing circumstances.​

Factors include passive consumption of digital media, over-reliance on rote learning in schools, standardized testing, and overly structured schedules that leave little room for independent exploration and inquiry. Parents can encourage open-ended questions, allow time for unstructured play, involve kids in decision-making, and promote discussion of multiple viewpoints. Engaging them in debates or Socratic dialogue also helps greatly. These interventions at individual and family level can provide some protection but cannot fully counter systemic forces degrading critical thinking capacity.​

Critical thinking is becoming rare because education systems prioritize measurable performance over intellectual development, technology fragments attention and creates information overload while rewarding shallow engagement, culture has shifted toward polarization and certainty rather than nuance and questioning, misinformation proliferates among populations lacking evaluation skills, psychological costs of genuine critical thinking create incentives for comfortable conformity, cognitive capacities atrophy without demanding use, and institutions that should cultivate critical thinking have abandoned that mission in favor of credentialing and efficiency.

Reversing this decline requires fundamental reforms to education emphasizing depth over breadth and process over outcomes, developing information literacy and media criticism as core competencies, rebuilding cultural appreciation for nuanced thought and intellectual humility, creating social environments that reward rather than punish questioning and uncertainty, and institutional commitment to genuinely fostering rather than merely claiming to value critical thinking. The stakes could not be higher as civilization depends on collective capacity for reason, and that capacity is rapidly eroding.