7 Myths in Psychology You Need to Stop Believing
Popular psychology is full of myths. I’ve narrowed it down to 7, I think are the most widely believed. Here are 7 myths in psychology you need to stop believing.
#1 – Psychology is common sense.
If I told you that ‘forcing smile doesn’t increase your happiness levels’, you would probably say that that is common sense.
However, the reverse is true, forcing a smile CAN increase your happiness levels. Research has found that your mood is improved and your stress is reduced even if you force a smile for a short period of time.
The problem lies with what we think is actually common sense. People tend to invoke what common sense is after they know the facts.
#2 – You only use 20% of your brain.
This myth has been around for a while and it’s been perpetuated by films such as Limitless and the similar film, Lucy. The truth is that we use all percentage (%) of our brain. We just use different parts at different times. It doesn’t make evolutionary sense that we only use a small fraction of our brains true potential.
We can make accurate deductions from case studies. If a large percentage of our brains are not in use, you would expect removal of some parts of the brain to cause no damage. However, research has shown that even the removal of a small part of the brain can produce radical changes.
#3 – You can control people with hypnosis.
Hypnosis is a naturally occurring mental state characterised by increased focus and concentration. When a person is under a hypnotic trance, they are in a highly suggestible state. The general idea is that with hypnosis, you can not be manipulated into doing something that goes against your beliefs, or something you would not have done before.
#4 – The polygraph test is accurate for detecting lies.
Also known as the lie detector test, a polygraph can measure a person’s heart rate, blood pressure and even skin conductivity. The basic premise is that deception requires a certain amount of mental effort which can be picked up by the measurement tools.
It actually has a low accuracy in detecting lies because of the large amount of things that can produce measurable physiological changes in our body. The environment, temperature, leading questions, being innocent and many other factors can produce a false positive.
#5 – You memories are like a video camera.
Your memories are actually reconstructed from various parts of our brain. The image, audio and how you felt are stored in different areas. The worst thing about this is that your memories can be significantly altered or changed from what actually happened. This means that eye-witness testimonies can be far from accurate.
#6 – IQ tests are accurate for measuring intelligence.
IQ tests supposedly measure your intelligence based on the responses you give to multiple choice questions. Quick criticisms: If it’s multiple choice (most internet-based tests are), you can guess and still get 100%; Your score gets better with more and more IQ tests.
They simply ignore the complexity of the human brain. Similar to how people say you can be book smart and street smart, researchers have categorised intelligence into 9 self-explanatory ‘types’: naturalistic, musical, logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, intrapersonal and spatial intelligence.
Remember - Thinking you’re smart for having a high IQ is like thinking you’re the best driver for getting top marks in your driving theory test.
#7 – You can learn a language while sleeping.
This myth has been used to sell language learning products using a false pretence. They would generally have a pseudo-scientific explanation for how our subconscious can retain information with passive listening. Also, the ability to learn a language fluently, with no hard work whatsoever, appeals to many people.
Believing this is like wondering how you watch the football every week and you are not a superstar athlete yet. Building skills requires practice, and language learning especially, requires active listening and talking in that language.
