The Value of Honor Society Participation: Is There a Relationship Between Honor Society Participation and Belief in Psychological Myths?

Psychological myths have become so widespread in both the general public as well as higher education undergraduate communities that it has been damaging to the psychology field (Gaze, 2014; Kowalski & Taylor, 2009; Meinz et al., 2022). Factors such as education, belief in psychology as a science, and their confidence in their myth beliefs (myth confidence) have previously been examined in relation to myth endorsement (Bensley & Lilienfeld, 2015; Richardson & Lacroix, 2021). However, there has been no previous research focusing on the connection between honor society membership and myth belief. The present study examined whether honor society participation could predict to myth belief. To better understand be-lief in psychological misconceptions, this study also measured the participants’ belief in psychology as a science and confidence in myth beliefs. Understanding myth belief predictors may help psychologists mitigate the spread of psychological myths. A total of 972 participants from 2-year colleges across the United States were recruited to take a survey regarding psychological myths. We compared myth belief, belief in psychology as a science, and myth score confidence between two groups: honor society members (N = 129) and non-honor society members (N = 807). Non-honor society members identified significantly fewer myths than honors society members, were less confident when correctly identifying myths than honor society members and had lower belief in psychology as a science than honor society members. These findings suggest that honor society membership may be a predictor of myth detection. This finding is possibly due to honor society eligibility requirements, such as grades and credits taken. Our results may be useful in developing academic interventions to prevent psychological myth belief.