Abstract
Student beliefs in common psychological misperceptions were assessed at the beginning of an introductory psychology course, the end of the course, and again 1 year later. At the end of the course, students’ previously held misperceptions of psychological phenomena shifted toward more accurate perceptions, and 1 year later, students reported that they had not reverted to the original misconceptions for the majority of the myths evaluated. Results of this study suggest that the introductory psychology course can be effective in correcting common misperceptions of psychological phenomena.
Psychology has long been under attack as a “soft” science, undeserving of the designation as a scientific discipline (Benjamin, 1986; Lilienfeld, 2012; Munro & Munro, 2015). This perception of the discipline of psychology is most frequently perpetuated in the general public with many people believing that psychology is nothing more than a pseudoscience. This belief has been perpetuated by the popular media, which has often characterized psychology as merely a compilation of interesting phenomena or a mechanism for self-help. The discipline is further marginalized when psychology is co-opted by seemingly related disciplines without a scientific foundation.
Many psychologists (Benjamin, 1986; Furnham & Hughes, 2014; Lilienfeld, 2012; Stanovich, 2009) have argued that it is important to change the public perception of psychology so that the general population understands the scientific foundations of the discipline. Lilienfeld suggested that one mechanism for changing public perception is to apply psychological science as a means for dispelling commonly held psychological myths.
Why has changing the perception of psychology proven to be so difficult? Lilienfeld (2012) argued that within the discipline, the problem is in part fostered by our own failure to both publish and use scientific evidence in everyday life. For example, as teachers of psychology, we often fail to cite literature from cognitive psychology that supports spaced practice as a scientifically supported technique for studying. In addition, the current emphasis on simple or reductionist solutions is increasing. People want answers now. Thus, efforts to change the public face of psychology result in very limited success.
Some psychologists have worked through the popular media to help with dispelling myths related to eyewitness testimony and repressed memory (Loftus, 1996). With more than a million students enrolling in introductory psychology each year (Steuer & Ham, 2008), the course holds great promise for educating the larger population about psychology. However, organizations representing the discipline of psychology have yet to realize the opportunity to educate the larger population of the role of psychological science in everyday life.
Changing misperceptions is extremely important because as Lewandowsky, Ecker, Seifert, Schwarz, and Cook (2012) suggested, misperceptions are costly to the society. However, they also acknowledged that changing beliefs will likely be difficult and that correcting misinformation will entail changing individual cognitions along with deliberate changes in how information is communicated. Their recommendations included using fewer arguments to refute a myth supplemented with an exercise that induces a healthy skepticism about the source of information. One reason that fewer and more succinct arguments might be successful in reducing misperceptions is that people prefer the quick fix, and this desire for a quick fix is one of the reasons that people originally subscribe to psychological myths (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein, 2010).
Olson (2009) acknowledged the challenge of trying to communicate scientific information, and he offered an interesting proposal for communicating with the general public—the use of humor. His approach is to publish humorous, scientifically sound books through the popular media. In his most recent book, he begins with a slightly humorous identification of four organs of communication: the head, heart, gut, and sex organs. Olson suggested at the very basic level, sex, one reaches the largest audience. As one progresses upward (figuratively and literally), the ability to engage the audience grows increasingly limited. If psychology is going to be successful in communicating the science of the discipline, Olson argued that we must resign ourselves to the lower “organs.” In other words, the discipline of psychology must engage students with interesting information before delivering basic scientific principles.
In this study, we conducted a longitudinal study using Olson’s (2009) approach by identifying interesting information (i.e., popular psychological myths) to engage students in an understanding of psychological science. Prior to beginning an introductory psychology course, students responded to interesting and popular misconceptions about psychology (Lilienfeld et al., 2010). Students who completed the course responded to the same questions at the end of the course and again 1 year later.
Method
Students enrolled in two sections of an introductory psychology course offered at a community college participated in this study. The sections of the course were identical in terms of instructor and textbook (Myers, 2010). The content of the course included material from each of the five domains associated with the common core for introductory psychology courses (American Psychological Association [APA], 2014).
Using Lilienfeld (2012) as a reference, we selected 12 of the most common myths about psychology and matched them with content that would be addressed in the course. During the first week of the course, students were asked to express their level of agreement with these myths. Content of the course paralleled that of the text without specific reference to misconceptions per se but instead a general approach which included an emphasis on engaging students through critical thinking.
The students enrolled in the course took a pretest before the course started. Students were then asked to rate their level of agreement with these myths at the end of the course and 1 year later.
This repeated-measures study involved administration of a 12-item instrument at three points in time. The first administration of the instrument occurred on the first day of class (N = 67) when students took the pretest. A second administration of the instrument occurred on the final day of class (n = 49). Only 6 students withdrew from the course, and the remaining 12 students did not attend class when the posttest was administered. The withdrawal rate for the course was 12%.
Ultimately, only about half (N = 25) of the students completed the third administration of the myths survey 1 year later, thus the results of the study reflect only those participants who completed all three administrations of the instrument. The majority of the participants were women (n = 17), and the largest percentage of participants were White (n = 17), followed by Black (n = 5), and Asian (n = 3). It is important to note that obtaining participation in a study, 1 year after a course ends, is a significant challenge. It is possible that the limited participation reflects a general problem with retaining participation, or it is possible that the results may reflect a trend that is specific to the students who opted to participate in the final administration.
At the beginning of the term, students rated the accuracy of each of the psychological myths on a 4-point scale. Participants indicated whether the myth was definitely true (1), probably true (2), probably false (3), or definitely false (4). The 12 myths used in this study are as follows: Most people use only 10% of their brain. Some people are left brained and others are right brained. Subliminal messages can persuade people to purchase products. Human memory works like a tape recorder or video camera and accurately records the events that we’ve experienced. Individuals commonly repress the memories of traumatic experiences. The polygraph (“lie detector”) test is an accurate means of detecting dishonesty. People’s responses to inkblots tell us a great deal about their personality. People with schizophrenia have multiple personalities. Psychiatric hospital admissions and crimes increase during full moons. More than 20% of people charged with a felony plead insanity. All effective psychotherapies force people to confront the “root” causes of their problems in childhood. Raising children similarly leads to similarities in their adult personalities.
After completing the myths scale, students completed the course which included the typical range of scientific content. Students were not told at the end of the pretest that the items were all myths. The items were used as a set of “teasers” for the course. The instructor also did not take specific steps to emphasize or dispel the common misperceptions used in this study. In other words, course content was presented for each of the myths tested in this study, but a specific reference to the pretest item was not addressed during the course. Not surprisingly, however, after encountering some of the myths through the course, some students spontaneously exclaimed that it was an item they were asked about on the first day of class.
Students rated the accuracy of the myths at the end of the course. This time students were told after responding to all of the items that they were all indeed myths. Students were also contacted via e-mail 1 year later and asked to respond to the myths survey one last time in an attempt to evaluate the stability of change in the belief in the myths.
Results
At the beginning of the course, students generally agreed with the commonly held myths about psychology, and these results are reflected in Table 1. At the end of the course, students reported that they disagreed with the myths in almost all cases (range = 2.24–3.92). Although the strength of the beliefs declined slightly, using a repeated-measures ANOVA, 1 year later students reported that the myths were false (range = 2.32–3.68) in most cases as well. Because students were told at the end of the course that all of the items were myths, we were concerned that 1 year later students would just remember that all of the items were myths not the individual myths themselves. Only one student reported that all of the items were definitely false; 1 year later, however, she also reported that all of the items were definitely false at the end of the course.
Item Agreement Across Time.
Note. N = 25. M = mean; SD = standard deviation; r 1 = effect size for pretest–posttest contrast; r 2 = effect size for posttest 1-year contrast; ns = not statistically significant.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
Upon reviewing the stability of the ratings 1 year after completing the course, in most instances student perceptions were more accurate when compared to the pretest scores. In one instance, students entered the course with an accurate perception of the veracity of polygraph tests, and this perception remained stable 1 year later. In other words, students correctly believed that polygraph tests are not a reliable means of detecting whether a person is lying. In a second instance, students corrected their belief about the role of raising children and personality. However, 1 year later, the students reverted to their original belief.
In two instances, results were not significant. In the first case, students entered the course with an accurate perception. Students did not subscribe to the myth of photographic memory, thus their belief did not change over the course of the year. In other words, students began with an accurate perception that photographic memory is a myth, so this understanding remained accurate.
In the second case, the superstition that a full moon increases erratic behavior remained impervious to change. Unfortunately, students maintained a strong belief in lunar lunacy at the beginning of the course, and the belief did not change at the end of the course. We believe this particular misperception is especially difficult to change because people continually employ confirmation bias as a way to retain their beliefs.
Discussion
As evidenced in this study, students believed in many of the misconceptions held by the larger population when they entered the course. In fact, McKeachie (1960) and Vaughan (1977) suggested that the introductory course is not effective in increasing skepticism in general, yet they found that it is possible to dispel specific beliefs if the content is specifically referenced in the course, and results of this study mirror those of early research. Similarly, Gutman (1979) conducted a study using a pre- and posttest design and suggested that the introductory course holds little promise for changing misperceptions long term. Yet, Kowalski and Taylor (2009) using a specific refutational method contradicted these earlier studies and were successful in dispelling psychological myths at the end of an introductory course in psychology.
In general, the results of this study demonstrate promise for using the introductory psychology course as a vehicle for correcting myths and misperceptions that are held by a large percentage of the general population. So, although skepticism in general may not increase, these results offer promise for correcting inaccurate beliefs about the nature of psychology for more than one million students per year (APA, 2014; Landrum & Gurung, 2013; Steuer & Ham, 2008). In other words, the introductory psychology course may provide a vehicle for correcting misperceptions for a large number of students and ultimately the general populace.
It is important to note that in this study the changes in misperceptions are associated with major psychological concepts that are potentially interesting to students (e.g., subliminal messages can persuade people to buy products). Landrum and Gurung (2013) found that detailed content about the discipline is fleeting; therefore, our emphasis on broad concepts may be one reason that the long-term change in beliefs was successful. In fact, Lewandowsky et al. (2012) suggested that emphasizing fewer facts might actually be more effective in refuting myths; in other words, communicating key findings from psychological literature might be a more effective mechanism for reducing misconceptions about psychology. It is also possible that the specific myths used in this study may have been of particular interest to the students, thus capitalizing on the role of unusual content in cueing memory (Einstein, McDaniel, & Lackey, 1989).
How can psychology correct misperceptions for the long term? Although this study offers preliminary support for the use of an introductory psychology course in correcting common misperceptions about psychology, sustaining change remains challenging. Lilienfeld, Ammirati, and David (2012) suggest that teaching students about cognitive errors (e.g., hindsight bias) may help people to recognize the importance of using the scientific method to solve important problems. If students use their knowledge, they become better consumers. So, introductory psychology courses that emphasize interesting broad concepts should provide students with the basic tools to invoke a healthy dose of skepticism. We remain optimistic that an introductory psychology course, with clearly articulated student learning outcomes, can result in dispelling myths consistent with the recommendations of most recent report on the role of an introductory psychology course (APA, 2014).
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.