We often think of the need for critical thinking in the context of nonscientific approaches to extraordinary claims about the natural world. We call that pseudoscience, and as an antidote we often prescribe more science courses, especially those focusing on skeptical thinking. But critical thinking is not unique to the sciences.
A study by two researchers at North Carolina State University, Anne McLaughlin and Alicia McGill, indicates that explicitly teaching critical thinking skills in a humanities course can significantly reduce students’ beliefs in pseudoscience, pseudo-archaeology, and pseudo-history.