science

You don't even need to do all of that. Simply teaching kids to be curious, critical, and not afraid of failure prepares them in a much more universal/general sense.

A lot of these people were probably told they were special growing up and "really smart," which unintentionally reinforces the idea that they naturally know things and their identity is tied to being smart/knowledgeable. So when anyone contradicts that identity--confronting them with facts that don't align with what they thought to be true--it feels like an existential threat to their ego.