We should think critically about what others tell us because it can help save our resources. For example, according to CNN, on July 31, 2022, Etienne Klein, a famous scientist, posted a picture that he said was of Proxima Centauri, a star, but was actually a picture of a slice of chorizo sausage. When people saw that a scientist had posted a picture of the star closest to the sun on social media they didn't even think about whether it was correct. They probably thought it was right because he was a scientist, so they started commenting on it and sending it to their friends. It wasted their resources, especially time and energy.

Another reason we should think critically about what others tell us is to protect our ability to believe in what is true. There is a term in psychology called the illusory truth effect. It means if you have heard about information once you may not believe it, but if you hear it a lot of times you will be more likely to believe it even though it is not logical. We are not good at remembering whether the information that we have heard is true or false. Therefore, we need to make sure the information or the news is true when we hear it so we can try to remember its truthfulness correctly. In Arizona State University, Assistant Professor Caitlin Drummond conducted research about how fake news affects people's belief in climate change. Fake news caused them to believe in climate change less and also to believe less in agreement between scientists on whether climate change is correct. They did not even think about whether what they had heard was true. So they did not think critically about the fake news that they had gotten, and that also weakened their ability to believe in what is true.

The last reason we should think critically about what others tell us is to protect our health.According toTime, Bill Bryan, an official Homeland Security Department, in a conference said that bleach could kill COVID in saliva. He didn't mean that you could eat or drink bleach but Donald Trump got interested and asked if there might be a way to inject bleach in your body to kill it. According to the Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center, within 18 hours of Donald Trump's comments, poison centers in at least 5 states got an increase in calls. When some people heard Trump say that if you put bleach in your body it could kill COVID, they didn't even think about whether that is true or not and just started drinking it, which made them sick. This means if you don't think critically about what others tell you that can affect your life because it will make you sick. He did not say that you can drink bleach to remove COVID from your body, but people thought that is what he meant because they did not think critically.

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