The default state of a person appears to be intellectual laziness. You have to choose to overcome it. Emotions are automatic. They just happen to you without any effort on your part. Critical thinking requires gathering evidence, deduction, actively controlling for bias, and, most importantly, a willingness to admit that you are wrong in the face of evidence that contradicts your beliefs. The left is full of intellectually lazy NPCs because they attack anyone with a dissenting opinion, but there are plenty of right NPCs as well.