It seems that teaching the general public rationality tools may cause more polarisations. That is because many ideas seem to be used primarily for argument-winning instead of truth-seeking.
There is a risk that some ideas will make people less rational when teaching rationality. For example, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote an article Knowing About Biases Can Hurt People.
Scott Alexander uses the term Symmetric and Asymmetric Weapons for a similar idea: Some thinking-tools are more useful for winning arguments than truth-seeking.
Therefore, there is a need for research into improving the general public’s rationality without causing harm and even more polarisation.
Research raising sanity waterline
It seems that teaching the general public rationality tools may cause more polarisations. That is because many ideas seem to be used primarily for argument-winning instead of truth-seeking.
There is a risk that some ideas will make people less rational when teaching rationality. For example, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote an article Knowing About Biases Can Hurt People.
Scott Alexander uses the term Symmetric and Asymmetric Weapons for a similar idea: Some thinking-tools are more useful for winning arguments than truth-seeking.
Therefore, there is a need for research into improving the general public’s rationality without causing harm and even more polarisation.