Ever started worrying after swallowing gum and fearing it might remain in your stomach forever? Well, guess what? Most of this knowledge was implanted in us as kids to trick us into doing something or stop us from doing it. Alas, some people carry such myths their whole lives and share them with others, continuing this vicious cycle.
In the golden age of misinformation, it’s more important than ever to separate fact from fiction as it can divide, confuse people and even cause danger to health.
We are on a mission to debunk them and have gathered some of the most mind-boggling misconceptions from a few Reddit discussions (one and two) that people should seriously stop buying into.
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If you cut taxes to the wealthy, those savings will trickle down to the lowly workers and make them better off financially.
It just makes the disparity worse. Because say their profits are 6 billion when their taxes are cut, the following years, they will do whatever it takes to match or even increase profits, cutting costs wherever possible. This includes increasing workload for employees for no increased wages. Tax the rich!
Modern myths emerge from people’s fear of rapid social and technological change, and the need to make sense of the confusing chaos of everyday life. Any topic is subject to numerous misconceptions, from medicine to politics.
Without the proper knowledge, we might start believing that the capital of Australia is Sydney, that humans have just five senses, and that bats are blind. Which is not true!
The myth that if you're a good person and work hard, you'll get somewhere in life. It's a flawed formula that doesn't account for a myriad of variables.
I only know 3 people who all grew up very poor and are now very successful in life. Most other people didn’t have the same luck as them despite working very hard
Poor people are ONLY poor because they are ALL lazy and made bad decisions.
So true, almost lost my house and became homeless when I got cancer and Hubby's heart failed. Debtors don't care that you've never missed a payment in 25 years.
Money can’t buy happiness. It has been proven repeatedly that this is a lie! People who spout this nonsense are using money incorrectly! Pisses me off every time I heard it
It is absolutely true that money CAN buy happiness, but not guaranteed that money DOES buy happiness (ie buy away your grief/depression/mental problems). Can we all just agree on this and stop arguing and just be angry at the insanely rich that could make a lot of other people happier?
Debunking modern myths is an art that should be mastered in order to escape the sea of misconceptions circling our society. There are even specific instructions about how they should be countered with science. First, the myth should be replaced with a factual alternative, the catchier the better, as it has to stick in people’s minds. It's important to note that mentioning the myth can make people even more familiar with the unwanted information, so it's a good idea to warn them beforehand that you're about to mention a misconception. Finally, explain why the myth is wrong which is likely due to a lack of scientific evidence. Voilà! Next time, you’ll be able to successfully refute misbeliefs disguised as facts.
That a drink concoction can detox your body.
Your liver, lungs, skin, kidneys and other organs are enough. All you have to do is hydrate and have a good diet
The woman from the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit was frivolous and sue happy.
Vaccines cause autism.
Tell the anti-vaxxers that there is a vaccine out that prevents autism and watch their head cave in
Misconceptions can relate not only to the things or situations in the world but also to the people themselves. For example, it's common to believe that men aren't emotional, don't struggle with mental health, or that their thoughts solely revolve around money, sex, and work. Similarly, some people still hold the belief that women spend more money, are more emotional, and naturally nurturing. These deeply ingrained beliefs can limit individuals and unfairly define them so it’s crucial to put these myths to rest.
That if a human handles a baby bird the mother will smell human on it and reject it. It’s an absolute myth. Birds don’t smell super well. I mean, don’t go around yoinking babies from their nests, but handling one at a time of need won’t be its death sentence.
Some birds will recognise the person who helped and will trust them a bit more than anyone else
"Your call is very important to us"
Also, how do you have "higher than normal call volumes" all the time?! What call volume are you calling normal? 2am during a power outage or something?
Medical specialists are also trying hard to clear many misconceptions related to health and medicine. Viral misinformation has become a possible danger to people’s health. Fears about vaccines result in the re-emergence of preventable diseases and the promotion of natural remedies discourages people from seeking care for serious illnesses. Additionally, popular diets and unproven wellness products might have harmful effects on people’s health as well.
The Alpha Wolf theory or whatever it's called. Wolf packs are just families
The myth that nuclear power isn't safe. It's actually equal with solar as the safest form of power generation there is.
Pollution from coal power and other fossil fuels kills 2 or 3 times as many people as Chernobyl did *every single day*.
Funny how people forget about the deaths caused mining for coal and by coal pollution
A group of people called “science deniers” go as far as to reject scientific expertise and prefer ideology to facts. We are not talking about one fake fact you saw on Facebook, these people believe that climate change, vaccines, coronavirus and a round earth are a hoax. They are not merely uninformed - they are horribly misinformed.
Undercover police have to tell you they are policemen when you ask them.
That being cold will give you a cold.
Well, actually, this isn't entirely a myth at all. The cold will not "give" you a cold, but it does facilitate making getting sick a lot easier. There has been multiple peer reviewed s that show cold temperatures lower the immune response in people's bodies, especially the nose and throat, where most pathogens enter. Here are some of these.....https://www.uclahealth.org/news/new-study-links-nose-temperature-and-immune-response#:~:text=According%20to%20this%20new%20research,EVs%20that%20reduced%20their%20efficacy .... https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/out-in-the-cold ... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10066131/ ... Also, a lot of the viruses that cause colds survive better in cold temps.
Cutting hair makes it grow faster. Actually had an argument with a hairdresser about this. She insisted it was true but I said it wasn't. Went looking for actual reasearch and found that hair is keratin and cutting it does not speed growth
All in all, we should be ready to fend off many misconceptions coming our way daily. Fact-checking can be done in one second and it could help us break free from the vicious cycle of misconceptions.
Drinking a bunch of juice that's high in Vitamin C prevents or cures colds and flus
That eating foods containing fat will contribute to your body fat more than the same number of calories in the form of carbs.
Similarly, that eating eggs — which contain cholesterol— will raise your blood cholesterol.
S**t’s more complicated.
Sugar is what makes you gain weight. If you cut down on sugar and fats, you won’t gain much weight
That "Flushable wipes" should actually be flushed.
You have to wailt 24 hrs to report a missing person.
I never got this one. The earlier it is reported, the more chance of that person being found healthy. Hollywood has a lot to answer for.
That cracking your knuckles will result in arthritis. Total b******t.
The idea that you should drink at least eight glasses of water a day to stay hydrated. I mean, come on, it's just not backed by science. Drink enough to be hydrated but 8 glasses is not magic.
Eight glasses is something like 2-2,5 liter of water and that is in the right ballpark for average person. But then there are the other things to consider, like what is the temperature, how big you are, what do you eat, how your metabolism works, how much physical activities you do, ... And one important thing, how much minerals are in your water? Level varies a lot, make sure that your water is not "too clean", then you may get migraines from drinking too much water and demineralizing your body.
The myth that Polygraphs, aka lie detectors, are accurate. Actual scientific assessments of the accuracy of polygraphs consistently shows little to no evidence that they are accurate despite their prevalence in use by law enforcement agencies for investigations and for security clearances. It can result in a lot of false positives, for example, of people being nervous about questioning and their physical stress being picked up as a lie by the person “analyzing” the output. (I’m using air quotes here since it’s one of those things where the analysis is more subjective than objective so is prone to human bias.)
How can you tell what someone is thinking by using a machine? There are not used in the UK...possibly for this reason.
Breakfast is the most important part of the day! This was nothing but a slogan created by Kellogg’s in the early 19th century!
Maybe the early 20th century, but not the early 19th. John H. Kellogg wasn't born until 1852.
Carrots improve your night vision.
This myth was created by the British Ministry of Defense in WWII. The British had a major technological advantage over the Germans: ground to air radar. This allowed the Brits to scramble fighters at night to intercept German bombers at an unprecedented rate during the Blitz. To hide this, the MOD invented the myth and circulated a bunch of b******t stories about how they feed their pilots a bunch of carrots and supplements made of carrot vitamins, which allowed the fighter pilots to see the german formations better.
Carrots are good for you, but they don't do s**t for your eyes.
That working out will be the key to losing the pounds. Weight loss happens in the kitchen. Exercise helps somewhat but will do nothing if caloric intake isn't reduced.
That NASA paid millions for a pen that would write in space.
Note: this post originally had 35 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Most of these (all of these) are simply repeats of ones we have all seen oodles of times before. And a third of them are either bad distortions of the truth or simply not true.
There are so many incorrect statements in this thread that I had to stop correcting the wrong parts. So, caution here: part of the so-called myths listed here are really not myths at all, if one stay away from over-simplification. Bored Panda editors, DO YOUR HOMEWORK before sharing nonsense !
I was surprised to not see - Dogs are colourblind. Or - Your nose and ears grow all your life. Would think many people still believe those.
I can't wait to see this list again next week and the week after that and the week after that and the week after that...
Most of these (all of these) are simply repeats of ones we have all seen oodles of times before. And a third of them are either bad distortions of the truth or simply not true.
There are so many incorrect statements in this thread that I had to stop correcting the wrong parts. So, caution here: part of the so-called myths listed here are really not myths at all, if one stay away from over-simplification. Bored Panda editors, DO YOUR HOMEWORK before sharing nonsense !
I was surprised to not see - Dogs are colourblind. Or - Your nose and ears grow all your life. Would think many people still believe those.
I can't wait to see this list again next week and the week after that and the week after that and the week after that...
