But before we delve in…
What is Pop Psychology?
Pop psychology, short for popular psychology, refers to a range of psychological concepts and practices that have gained widespread recognition through various media channels like books, TV shows, and online content. This term encompasses psychological ideologies and methods that have become popular among the general public, often focusing on personal emotions, contemporary cultural trends, and self-improvement strategies.
It’s crucial to acknowledge that while these approaches are prevalent and attractive to those seeking mental health enhancement, they might not always be grounded in scientific research or evidence-based practices. Pop psychology is often associated with the promise of quick solutions, presenting seemingly straightforward answers to intricate personal challenges.
Influential figures like Dr. Phil McGraw and Oprah Winfrey, who endorse pop psychology methods, have played a significant role in its widespread acceptance and growth.
Fun Facts About Pop Psychology:
– Birth of Buzzwords: Pop psychology found its footing as TV and radio brought psychological terms into living rooms, transforming intricate theories into everyday conversation starters.
– Psychology’s Prime Time Players: Icons like Dr. Phil and Frasier Crane turned therapy sessions into entertainment, blending psychological insights with humor and drama, shaping a perception of psychology more focused on charisma than credentials.
– Personality in Pop Culture: The Myers-Briggs test, akin to psychological astrology, provides a fun reflection of our personalities, despite lacking the scientific rigor of its more scholarly counterparts. If you’re after a personality test backed by science, there are other options.
– Debunking the Brain Myth: The enduring “10% brain usage” myth, debunked by neuroscientists like Barry Beyerstein, showcases pop psychology’s lasting allure and its tendency to oversimplify complex concepts.
14 Pop Psychology Myths You’ll Be Surprised to Know
Prepare for some “aha” moments as we debunk the myths you thought were true. It’s time for a myth-busting session that promises to be both enlightening and entertaining. Get ready!
The Smiling Myth: Smiling Is the Secret to Happiness
In recent times, positive psychology has propagated the idea that a simple smile can turn a bad day into a happy one almost instantly. While it’s a lovely notion, the reality is that smiling alone can’t solve our problems or erase the unhappiness stemming from negative events.
This myth also carries the danger of promoting the unrealistic expectation that we should always be happy, potentially leading to toxic positivity. Scientifically, a forced smile doesn’t have the power to genuinely uplift mood. The science 1 shows that a fake smile may not be enough to create a positive emotional shift.
There’s a kernel of truth in this myth. If you’re having an off day without specific negative emotions like sadness or anger, a genuine smile can indeed boost your mood. The key lies in ensuring it’s a real smile, not a fake one, as genuine happiness activates specific facial muscles near the eyes.
The Science: If you’re experiencing genuine negative emotions, attempting to cover them up with a fake smile might backfire. Research indicates that suppressing feelings increases stress levels and prolongs the dwelling on negative emotions. In certain situations where expressing emotions openly may not be suitable, like professional environments, a fake smile may be necessary. However, it’s crucial to internally acknowledge and validate your emotions to avoid the negative consequences of suppressing them fully.
Bonus: For a deeper dive into the science of facial expressions and emotions, check out this course: LIAR OR LEGIT?
The Power Posing Myth: Power Posing Increases Your Confidence Hormones
The Myth: In a widely popular TED talk, Harvard psychologist Amy Cuddy presented research on power posing, suggesting that standing or sitting with an expanded body posture (like the Superwoman pose) could lower stress hormones, increase testosterone (the power hormone), and enhance confidence in both appearance and feeling. This study gained viral attention, turning power posing into a pre-meeting, interview, or presentation ritual for success.
The Science: In 2015, a group of researchers 2 replicated Cuddy’s study with five times as many participants and found no indication that her results were valid. Suspicions arose that errors or data manipulation might have occurred in Cuddy’s study to achieve statistically significant results.
Despite people reporting increased confidence through power poses, these feelings likely stem from the placebo effect, influenced by Cuddy’s credible presentation. However, no additional psychology research supports the biological effects Cuddy claims power posing has.
The Subconscious Beliefs Myth: Subconscious Beliefs Control Your Life
The Myth: A prevalent idea in self-help and motivational realms is that your life’s outcomes are dictated by subconscious beliefs. According to this concept, harboring negative beliefs deep within will manifest as failures or setbacks, while positive beliefs will lead to success and happiness. The belief is that altering these deep-seated convictions can fundamentally change your life’s trajectory.
The Science: While our beliefs can influence our actions and perceptions, the notion that they have absolute control over our lives is misleading. Our behavior and success are influenced by various factors, including environment, genetics, opportunities, and conscious decision-making. The idea that a singular subconscious belief shapes our destiny overlooks the external factors that significantly impact our lives.
Professor Ben Newell 3 emphasizes that the evidence supporting the notion that decision-making is strongly influenced by information outside our awareness is not backed by scientific evidence.
The Opposites Attract Myth: Opposites Attract and Make Better Partners
The Myth: There’s a widely believed myth in the dating realm that suggests you’re more likely to be attracted to people who are very different from you. This myth stems from the false notion that being drawn to potential partners with opposite traits creates a more interesting and balanced relationship.
The Science: Numerous studies 4 indicate that the opposite is true—we are naturally drawn to potential partners who are similar to us. Moreover, similarity serves as an indicator of long-term relationship success, as similar individuals tend to agree on more aspects and share communication preferences. The idea that opposites attract might be more of a Hollywood script than a reflection of reality.
The Group Brainstorming Myth: People Are More Creative When They Brainstorm in Groups
The Myth: In today’s business landscape, there’s a fervent push for collaboration under the belief that multiple minds generate better ideas. While receiving feedback and learning from others is beneficial, the myth suggests that groups can outperform individuals in brainstorming.
The Science: According to 5 the American Institute of Graphic Arts and various research institutions, group brainstorming sessions possess characteristics that limit creativity:
– Anchoring: This cognitive bias makes it challenging to consider alternative options once anchored on a preferred idea. Groups often latch onto an initial good idea and struggle to generate potentially better alternatives.
– Groupthink: Anchoring is reinforced by groupthink, where peer pressure, intentional or not, causes group members to think alike, stifling the emergence of unique ideas.
– Pressure: The expectation to produce impressive ideas on the spot, surrounded by colleagues to impress, can create immense pressure, hindering individuals’ creative thinking.
Instead of solely relying on team brainstorming, providing individuals or small groups the opportunity to generate creative ideas before sharing them with the team for feedback may be a more effective approach. This allows for a more diverse and expansive exploration of ideas.
The Intuition Myth: Intuition is Always Right
The Myth: A commonly held belief is that your intuition, often referred to as a “gut feeling,” consistently leads you to the correct decision. According to this myth, your subconscious mind picks up on cues and information that your conscious mind may miss, making instinctive reactions more trustworthy than reasoned, analytical ones. It’s a comforting idea, suggesting that we inherently know what’s best for ourselves.
The Science: Research 6 in psychology and cognitive science has unveiled that intuition can be susceptible to various biases and errors. The availability heuristic, a mental shortcut relying on immediate examples from one’s mind, can influence gut feelings based on recent or frequent thoughts rather than logical correctness or relevance.
Moreover, intuition tends to be less reliable in areas where individuals lack expertise. Accurate gut feelings often require genuine background knowledge or experience. In contrast, in areas where a person has substantial experience, intuition can be more reliable due to the wealth of relevant knowledge they can unconsciously draw upon.
Bonus: If you’re intrigued by understanding how intuition works and when to trust it, here’s a great resource: LIAR OR LEGIT?
The Venting Myth: Venting Helps You Overcome Anger
The Myth: It’s a common misconception that the quickest way to deal with anger is to unleash it through yelling, ranting, and letting it all out. While it’s true that suppressing emotions can be harmful, venting is often believed to be a healthy release.
The Science: Contrary to the intended effect, research 7 suggests that venting has the opposite impact. Instead of calming you down, venting can positively reinforce anger, prolonging its duration. Rather than venting, a more effective approach is to express anger flexibly. This could involve taking a brief break from the triggering situation, identifying the causes of your anger and addressing them, or channeling your anger into activities like exercise or art.
The Left-Brained or Right-Brained Myth: You Are Left-Brained or Right-Brained
The Myth: You might have encountered someone identifying as right-brained for creativity or left-brained for analytical skills. The notion that one hemisphere of the brain dominates and determines personality traits or cognitive abilities has become a popular belief, attributing artistic or logical tendencies to the left or right side.
The Science: The idea that individuals have dominant sides of their brains is entirely untrue. Research 8 indicates that everyone utilizes both sides of their brains equally. Most abilities are distributed across various brain regions, and the execution of these abilities is facilitated by connections between different parts.
While certain brain sections may strengthen based on an individual’s lifestyle and prolonged conditions, this adaptation occurs in specific areas, not half of the brain. The left-brained or right-brained categorization oversimplifies the complexity of brain function.
The Subliminal Messages Myth: Subliminal Messages Can Control Your Behavior
The Myth: A prevalent myth suggests that subliminal messages—signals below our threshold of conscious awareness—have the power to influence our decisions and control our behaviors significantly. This belief implies that anything from advertising to self-help tapes can manipulate our desires and actions without our conscious knowledge.
The Science: A notable study 9 in this field is the 2006 Lipton Ice brand preference experiment. This research explored the impact of subliminal messaging on subjects’ choice between two drink brands and their feeling of thirst. The findings revealed that subliminal priming is effective only when the message is goal-relevant. In other words, subliminal messages about Lipton Ice increased participants’ choice of that drink only if they were already thirsty.
This suggests that subliminal cues can subtly influence our direction, but they don’t possess the level of control attributed to them by the myth. Additionally, the complexity of the brain and the conscious mind’s role in decision-making make it extremely challenging to bypass awareness and significantly influence behavior, especially in the long term.
The Classical Music Myth: Listening to Classical Music Makes Babies Smarter
The Myth: A humorous yet widely believed myth is the “Mozart Effect,” suggesting that playing classical music to infants can enhance their intelligence. Many parents, aiming to provide an early cognitive boost, transform their homes into concert halls filled with the works of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.
The Science: The original study 10 that ignited the Mozart Effect craze focused on college students, not babies. It found that listening to a Mozart sonata briefly improved spatial-temporal reasoning skills. However, subsequent research struggled to consistently replicate these findings and indicated that any cognitive boosts were short-term and not exclusive to classical music.
Rather than Mozart specifically, the temporary enhancement in performance on certain tasks is attributed to the improved mood and arousal derived from enjoying music.
The Communication Styles Myth: Men and Women Have Completely Different Communication Styles
The Myth: You’ve probably heard someone complain about struggling to communicate with the opposite gender or understanding their thoughts, based on the belief that men and women are so different that it’s like they speak different languages.
The Science: With increasing acceptance of individuals who don’t conform to traditional gender roles, research 11 suggests that men and women may not be as psychologically different as previously thought. According to an article published by the American Psychological Association, people tend to communicate and behave in alignment with the gender roles in their environment. When the expectations tied to gender roles are removed, men and women communicate very similarly.
The Midlife Crisis Myth: Most People Undergo a Midlife Crisis
The Myth: Familiar to many in the United States, the notion suggests that people in their forties suddenly realize their life isn’t as they envisioned it or become anxious about the passing of their younger years. This leads to purchasing flashy cars, making drastic career changes, dyeing hair, getting divorced, or engaging in other impulsive behaviors as a response to aging.
The Science: Contrary to the widespread belief, researchers 12 estimate that only around ten percent of the population experiences a midlife crisis, while the majority of individuals navigate their forties and fifties without losing rationality. While facing challenges and possibly engaging in some stereotypical midlife crisis activities, most people don’t lose themselves in the process.
The Personality Stability Myth: Our Personality Stabilizes When You’re an Adult
The Myth: A commonly held belief asserts that by the age of around twenty-five, the human brain is fully developed, and except for the impact of traumatic experiences, an adult’s personality remains relatively stable. This myth is appealing because it aligns with the expectation that by the mid-twenties, individuals should have a clear sense of direction and be progressing towards stable goals, reflecting a desire for inherent stability in humans.
The Science: A study 13 involving personality data from 132,515 people revealed that certain traits undergo changes over time:
– Individuals become more agreeable (willing to cooperate with others) as they age.
– Women become less neurotic (emotionally sensitive) with age.
– Both men and women become less open (less eager to try new experiences) as they age.
– Conscientiousness (work ethic and detail orientation) tends to increase with age.
These ongoing changes in personality traits challenge the notion that our personalities reach full maturity in adulthood.
The Brain Capacity Myth: The Average Person Only Uses 10 Percent of Their Brain Capacity
The Myth: Originating in the mid-to-late 1800s, this myth emerged when scientists 14 compared a child prodigy’s learning abilities and accomplishments to those of the average person, who experiences far less intellectual stimulation.
It gained traction in the 1900s when researchers, lacking a complete understanding of all brain functions, observed apparent inactivity in many parts of people’s brains and concluded that individuals only utilized about 10 percent of the brain’s full capacity.
This myth persists as people use it to argue that individuals fail to tap into their full intellectual potential.
The Science: Contemporary research 15 indicates that we use 100 percent of our brains throughout the day. The crucial point is that different parts of the brain serve distinct functions.
While sections controlling essential processes like breathing and senses are active continuously, other parts responsible for activities such as the fear response and problem-solving activate only when necessary. Although some people’s lifestyles may lead to more frequent brain activity, everyone utilizes all the brain’s abilities.
Why Do We Fall For Myths?
Our brains are wired to seek patterns and make sense of the world, often leading us to form beliefs based on limited or misunderstood information. While useful for quick decision-making and survival, this tendency makes us susceptible to believing in myths, especially in popular psychology.
Here are some specific reasons:
- Cognitive Biases: These are thinking errors that affect our decisions and judgments. One such bias is the confirmation bias, where we tend to favor information that confirms our beliefs and disregard evidence that contradicts them. When a psychological myth aligns with our intuitive understanding of the world, we’re more likely to accept it without scrutiny.
- Emotional Appeal and Comfort: Many psychological myths offer comfort in uncertain times. The idea that we can significantly improve our lives by following simple tips or unlocking hidden brain powers is immensely appealing. These myths often provide a sense of control and hope, making them emotionally comforting even if they lack scientific backing.
- Social and Cultural Influence: We’re social creatures, and the beliefs of those around us significantly influence our own. When myths become widespread, they develop legitimacy through social proof. If everyone believes something, it feels riskier to question or reject it. Cultural narratives and popular media representations reinforce these myths, presenting them as accepted wisdom.
- The Role of Authority Figures: When respected self-help gurus or charismatic figures endorse a myth, it gains credibility. People are more likely to believe something if an expert, celebrity, or authority figure they trust supports it. This reliance on authority can override critical thinking, especially in complex fields like psychology, where the average person might need more in-depth knowledge.
- The Dunning-Kruger Effect: This cognitive bias is where people with limited knowledge or competence in a domain overestimate their understanding. In the context of psychological myths, individuals who know a little about psychology might be confident in their ability to discern truth from myth, leading them to accept and spread misconceptions.
Pop Psychology History
Pop psychology has quite the history! It’s fascinating how it evolved from the musings of Descartes and Locke to the Freudian boom, and then the pop psychology renaissance in the 1960s.
Erich Fromm’s blend of Eastern philosophy and personal liberation was a game-changer indeed. The 1970s seemed to be a golden era for pop psychology with influential books like “I’m OK – You’re OK” and “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” setting the stage for the plethora of self-help books that followed.
The journey from philosophical ponderings to mainstream psychology is quite a ride!
Not All Myths Are As They Seem
Phew! Now that we’re done, we’ve uncovered the truth behind some of the most pervasive misconceptions in pop psychology.
Here’s a quick recap:
– Myth vs. Reality: We’ve debunked popular myths, from the oversimplified effects of smiling on happiness to the exaggerated powers of subliminal messaging.
– Cognitive Biases: Understanding how our brains are wired helps explain why we’re prone to believing in these myths.
– The Importance of Science: Empirical evidence and scientific research are crucial in distinguishing fact from fiction.
– The Influence of Culture and Media: Our beliefs are often shaped by the society and media we consume, highlighting the need for critical thinking.
– Personal Empowerment: Knowledge is power. By educating ourselves, we can make better-informed decisions about our mental health and well-being.
Now that you’re armed with the facts, continue your journey of understanding the human mind by reading our LIAR OR LEGIT?.
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/negative-emotions-key-well-being/
- http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2016/01/amy_cuddy_s_power_pose_research_is_the_latest_example_of_scientific_overreach.html
- https://www.unsw.edu.au/news/2023/06/were-in-control-new-research-dismantles-power-of-unconscious
- http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/myths/myth_27.cfm
- http://www.aiga.org/why-you-cant-brainstorm-creative-ideas
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/25767206
