Myths and misconceptions about human behavior and mental processes held by introductory psychology students: A BISTOPS collaborative research project

Abstract

Abstract Many people embrace myths and misconceptions about human behavior and mental processes, and even taking a course in psychology does not necessarily reduce these misconceptions and beliefs in myths. Holding such misunderstandings can have serious consequences on the decisions people make in their lives. Most studies about psychological myths have focused on relatively small samples and single institutions. A group of researchers, unified by an enduring focus on student learning as an area of research, convened at the Biennial International Seminar on the Teaching of Psychological Science in 2018 to study this issue. We sought to explore the prevalence of these myths and misunderstandings of students who have just completed an introductory psychology course. Thus far our collaboration has generated data from over 1000 introductory psychology students at 7 institutions across the United States and we have confirmed that there is widespread endorsement of many myths. We also surveyed those students’ instructors and found a negative correlation between the amount of time faculty spend debunking myths and myth endorsement. In this paper we briefly describe the process of developing this research project and our initial findings. We also outline the future directions we plan to take, including reconsidering how the introductory course could be taught to maximize the reduction of misconceptions about human behavior and mental processes. We conclude by discussing some of the strengths, limitations and difficulties of this collaborative project.