Can Education Save Us From Ourselves? Three Psychological Challenges to Democracy

Abstract

This review brings social science literature into conversation with education to understand how three psychological challenges—motivated reasoning, misinformation, and conspiracy theories—have been studied in educational research. After describing the challenges, how they function, and how they contribute to democratic backsliding, the authors explore the frequency, orientation, and proposed interventions to these challenges in 59 educational research articles published between 2016 and 2022. We categorize approaches to the challenges as Rational, Affective, or Blended Rational/Affective to describe their framing in educational research. Rational frameworks were the most common, while few studies used Affective frames. The few studies featuring an educational intervention emphasized rational thinking over affective or motivational processes. We suggest ways to bolster understanding of problems created by motivated reasoning, misinformation, and conspiratorial thinking and argue for increased attention to the affective and political nature of these challenges in educational research.