Knowledge claims, such as the following, abound in contemporary society. Here are a few claims from my current mail, newspapers, radio and television, and magazines.
Can you trust all of these claims and the explanations that accompany them? Probably not; some of these claims really push the limits of credibility. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to distinguish truth from fiction and you may find yourself accepting a knowledge claim that seemed reasonable initially, but turned out to be false. Is there some way to avoid these mental traps? Yes. Psychologists have proposed several techniques you can use to become a better consumer of information. Let's begin with the Law of Parsimony.
