Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, Vol 12(3), Sep 2026, 389-403; doi:10.1037/stl0000439
Despite their critics, textbooks remain an essential part of the introductory psychology (IP) student’s educational experience. Although past research has evaluated IP textbooks, research has not looked at whether the texts directly refute common misconceptions. Considerable evidence suggests that compared with standard text (i.e., presenting just the correct facts), refutational texts (activating and directly refuting a misconception) are more effective in helping students revise misconceptions and in building a coherent model of text meaning. The question asked in the present study was whether IP texts are playing a role in addressing and refuting student misconceptions about psychology. We developed and applied a rubric to reflect whether and how IP text refuted common misconceptions. Our analysis of 10 popular IP textbooks and 13 common misconceptions showed that they addressed most (67.7%) of the 13 misconceptions we identified in at least a standard manner. However, clear and direct refutations were limited in IP texts (26.2%). Although students were at least exposed to the correct information, the fact that misconceptions either failed to be addressed or were not strongly countered makes it likely that those misconceptions would remain intact despite reading a text. We discuss the challenges of this first study of refutational text in IP and call for further discussion and analyses of refutation in IP. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)