I fear that the most common context in which people learn about cognitive biases is also the most detrimental. That is, they’re arguing about something on the internet and someone, within the discussion, links them an article or tries to lecture them about how they really need to learn more about cognitive biases/heuristics/logical fallacies etc.. What I believe commonly happens then is that people realise that these things can be weapons; tools to get the satisfaction of “winning”. I really wish everyone would just learn this in some neutral context (school maybe?) but most people learn this with an intent, and I think it colours their use of rationality in general, perhaps indefinitely. :/
But maybe I’m just being too pessimistic.
Your last sentence is funny, considering I immediately thought: ‘If we taught them in school and plenty of bad effects remained, which seems well within the realm of possibility, you might be wishing people learned about fallacies in a context that made them seem more important.’
I fear that the most common context in which people learn about cognitive biases is also the most detrimental. That is, they’re arguing about something on the internet and someone, within the discussion, links them an article or tries to lecture them about how they really need to learn more about cognitive biases/heuristics/logical fallacies etc.. What I believe commonly happens then is that people realise that these things can be weapons; tools to get the satisfaction of “winning”. I really wish everyone would just learn this in some neutral context (school maybe?) but most people learn this with an intent, and I think it colours their use of rationality in general, perhaps indefinitely. :/ But maybe I’m just being too pessimistic.
Your last sentence is funny, considering I immediately thought: ‘If we taught them in school and plenty of bad effects remained, which seems well within the realm of possibility, you might be wishing people learned about fallacies in a context that made them seem more important.’