Misinformation in Intro Psych Textbooks: We’re still misleading students, the general public, and ourselves (Steve Stewart-Williams, Jun 23, 2026, Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter)
Among other things, many intro psych textbooks gloss over flaws in famous studies such as the Stanford Prison Experiment; misrepresent areas like evolutionary psychology; present highly contested but left-friendly ideas like stereotype threat as settled science; promote psychological myths such as that violent video games cause real-world violence; and ignore exaggerations and distortions in famous case studies like that of Phineas Gage and Kitty Genovese.