We can help ourselves think more critically by keeping the following points in mind.
From the book: James E. Alcock: Belief: What It Means to Believe and Why Our Convictions Are So Compelling
The book (Belief) is in my to read pile based on Harriet Hall's (the SkepDoc) review on Science Based Medicine (link below). Seeing this post just moved it up in the pile.
It does bring to mind one of Feynman's quote that I keep close to mind: The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.
I pretty much learned all of these back when I was an early teen.