What pop psychology gets wrong
When eye-catching theories emerge in the field of psychology, they often take on a life of their own. Just look at the idea that oxytocin is the ‘cuddle hormone’. This captures our imaginations, but research has shown that oxytocin can also increase feelings of intolerance and aggression. We are all amateur psychologists, and the field provides an appealing way for us to make sense of our feelings and behaviour. If it can confirm our own beliefs about human nature, then even better. But just like every science, psychology is a messy, ongoing process, and many headline-grabbing results have not been replicated, or are far more nuanced than first realised. Here are eight widely believed pop psychology ideas that are probably wrong, or at least overly simplistic. 5
“POWER ALWAYS CORRUPTS”
“His interpretation chimed with ideas about the roots of evil, apparently helping to explain past atrocities”
Does evil reside within us, or are we corrupted by circumstances? In 1971, the Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo sought to demonstrate the potential power of situations and social roles to corrupt individual morality. Anticipating the scenarios dreamt up by reality TV decades later, Zimbardo and colleagues created a mock prison and recruited 12 male college students to play the role of guards and 12 to play the role of prisoners. The idea was to study their interactions for
