Should children be taught in school about cognitive biases? Would learning about the ways in which we deceive ourselves into irrational beliefs and mindsets reduce these behaviors and improve critical thinking skills?

 These are all good and extremely relevant questions.

I believe children and adults should be educated regarding cognitive biases and a number of related subjects to help us understand ourselves and others better. Cognitive biases and logical fallacies are an absolute must in my opinion for inclusion at multiple levels of education, starting with the earliest levels at which they can be understood to any significant degree and expanded on as one progresses.

For adults it is even more important because adults wield a far greater share of power in almost every level of human interaction and society. Adults are extraordinarily resistant to learning about cognitive biases because we are biased to assume that other people may have them while a person of “my” political beliefs, religious beliefs, personal character and behavior is perfectly rational and objective.

A number of biases including the fundamental attribution error, the in-group and out-group group of biases, and naive realism, as well as the bias blindspot leave us, well, blind to our own biases. The obstacles to instruction regarding cognitive biases are significant, but if we wish to be careful in our thinking, logical, and to seek truth over comfort, we have an obligation to address this issue.

I don't believe there is scientific evidence that ALL biases can be reduced but SOME may be and if we have groups focused on countering them we may find ways that groups can counter them to a degree or at least factor them into our thinking to some degree.

I think it's incorrect, for example, to believe one is not gullible because they have discovered that others are or even that they themselves were in the past, being capable of being lied to and believing the lie is an inescapable part of human nature.

Many biases are similar in nature and a part of our subconscious processes. That is not something we will have perfect conscious awareness or control of, certainly not as human beings.

I believe that adding information on cognitive biases and psychology and critical thinking and human predators to our education is crucial to helping is to strive to be more accurate n our thinking and aware of when we are inaccurate.

I have written extensively on critical thinking and will include some links to several articles on this.

I highly recommend the work of Richard Paul and Linda Elder as they developed a curriculum on critical thinking and have several superb YouTube videos available free as well as numerous books they have written.

Critical Thinking

https://mbnest.blogspot.com/2018/05/cornerstones-of-critical-thinking-1-8.html

https://mbnest.blogspot.com/2019/02/confirmation-bias-can-versus-must.htmlhttps://mbnest.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-fundamental-attribution-error.htmlhttps://mbnest.blogspot.com/2020/11/critical-thinking-development-stage.htmlhttps://mbnest.blogspot.com/2020/11/how-to-think-effectively-six-stages-of.htmlhttps://mbnest.blogspot.com/2020/07/master-list-of-logical-fallacies.htmlhttps://mbnest.blogspot.com/2018/06/scientology-versus-critical-thinking.htmlhttps://mbnest.blogspot.com/2019/11/in-defense-of-critical-thinking-in-full.htmlhttps://mbnest.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-main-barriers-to-critical-thinking.htmlhttps://mbnest.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-main-barriers-to-critical-thinking_16.html

I hope this is useful.