Outer topic 12 of 13
Psychology myths that will not die, and what the evidence says instead
Learning styles, hemispheric dominance and the 10 percent brain claim have all been tested directly and failed. They keep circulating because they are useful stories, because teacher training materials repeat them, and because a correction never travels as far as the original.
Some of these were never research findings at all. Others were real studies whose conclusions were stretched past recognition. The pattern is worth learning, since it predicts which new claim will spread next.
Claims tested and rejected
Learning styles Debunked
Testing the claim requires assigning learners to matched and mismatched teaching and comparing outcomes. Harold Pashler's team found that almost no published studies had done this, and those that had found no benefit from matching. Surveys still find that most teachers in several countries believe the theory, which is a training problem rather than a research one. People do have preferences. Preferences just do not predict what teaching works.
Left brain versus right brain personalities Debunked
Jared Nielsen's 2013 analysis of resting-state scans from over 1,000 people found the expected lateralisation of specific functions and no sign that individuals favour one hemisphere overall. Language sits mainly on the left for most people and spatial attention leans right. Neither makes anyone a right-brained person.
The 10 percent brain myth Debunked
Nothing in neuroscience supports it. The brain uses around 20 percent of the body's energy at rest, activity appears throughout it, and small strokes cause serious deficits. Tracing the origin leads to misquoted William James, to early observations that most brain cells are glia rather than neurons, and to a great deal of self-help advertising.
Subliminal advertising changes behaviour Debunked
James Vicary claimed in 1957 that flashing eat popcorn during a film raised sales. He later admitted the study was fabricated. Subliminal priming does produce small effects in laboratory conditions on already-active goals, such as choosing a drink when you are already thirsty. Nothing supports the version where hidden messages create a purchase.
The Mozart effect Debunked
Rauscher's 1993 study reported a brief improvement in spatial reasoning after listening to Mozart for ten minutes. The effect lasted about fifteen minutes, applied to adults, and was later shown to follow from mood and arousal, appearing equally after listening to a Stephen King audiobook that participants enjoyed. Governments bought classical CDs for newborns anyway.
Weaker than claimed rather than false
Growth mindset interventions Contested
Teaching students that ability can improve does produce academic gains, and the gains are small. The 2019 national study across 12,000 US students found an effect concentrated in lower-achieving students in supportive schools, with an average grade change of around 0.1 points. Independent meta-analyses reach similar modest conclusions, well below the original claims.
Multitasking Contested
People do not process two demanding tasks at once. They switch, and the switching costs time and accuracy. What is contested is the claim about heavy media multitaskers having permanently degraded attention, where results have been inconsistent across labs and the original finding has not reliably replicated.
Why bad findings spread
Journals preferred surprising results, which meant a false positive was more publishable than a careful null. Small samples produced large apparent effects by chance. Flexible analysis let researchers try several approaches and report the one that worked, which Simmons and colleagues demonstrated in 2011 by using standard practices to prove that listening to a Beatles song made people younger.
Our own rules for all of this are set out in our evidence grading standards. The corrections since have been real. Preregistration, larger samples and registered reports are now common, and journals publish replication attempts they would once have rejected. When you meet a striking psychology claim, the useful questions are how many participants, has anyone repeated it, and how big was the effect in plain units.
Watch this on the channelMyth-busting videos with the original study, the failed replication and the reason the claim stuck.
Open Psychology Cue on YouTubeQuestions people ask about this topic
Are learning styles real?
No. The claim has been tested directly and failed. Pashler's 2008 review found almost no studies used the design capable of testing it, and those that did found no benefit from matching teaching to preference.
Do we only use 10 percent of our brains?
No. Imaging shows activity throughout the brain, and damage to almost any region produces deficits. The myth traces back to misquotation and self-help marketing.
Is the left brain creative and the right brain logical?
No. Specific functions are lateralised, but a study of over 1,000 brain scans found no evidence that individuals have a dominant hemisphere shaping their thinking style.
Does the Mozart effect make children smarter?
No. The original study found a brief improvement on one spatial task in adults, lasting about fifteen minutes, later attributed to arousal from any enjoyable audio.