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We humans are a weird bunch. Some of us are shooting a spacecraft at an asteroid to demonstrate that it's a viable technique to protect the planet but others still insist that swallowed gum will stay in our stomachs for 7 years.

Interested in hearing the most prevalent misconceptions, Reddit user FM596 made a post on the platform, asking everyone to share myths that are passed from generation to generation, and that people still believe in. Turns out, there's no shortage of those! Continue scrolling and check out some of the most-upvoted entries.

#1

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Vaccines cause Autisim.

thugbunny12 , Steven Cornfield Report

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RJ
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

On behalf of every child with Autism, I would happily punch people who think/say this in the throat. I would have to start with my parent in-laws. Possibly my parents too. They didn't say it out loud, but I know they were 'thinking' it.

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#2

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That certain animal 'parts' have healing/magical properties. Like tiger whiskers protect the wearer or rhino horn cures impotence and hangovers.

storm-in-a-teapot , David Clode Report

We managed to get in touch with FM596 and they agreed to tell us more about what inspired their post. "One of the reasons I decided to ask this question was to see how many people will mention the thousand-years-old-myth of supposedly living in a democracy (in any country)," they told Bored Panda.

"Democracy was real and has existed only once. After it was violently destroyed, leaders used the word democracy to mislead us into thinking that what we have is the best we can get."

"Out of the 12,000 comments, only 12 people mentioned that myth, just 1 out of 12,000, or 0.008%. That says a lot about the level of political edification we get from the state."

#3

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Boys playing with dolls (or other traditional feminine toys) will turn them gay. Or that anything will turn people gay or lesbian.

Lmh68 , Etienne Assenheimer Report

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If a boy picks up a doll, that doll magically transforms into an action figure!

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#4

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Trickle down economics.

TwoTeapotsForXmas , Scott Graham Report

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Waite Forit
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If rich people were putting their money back into the economy, there wouldn't be any billionaires.

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However, after going through the replies, FM596 thinks not all of them are valid. "First, not everything posted as a myth is, indeed, a myth. Many [of the entries] are half-truths, others are imprecisely expressed or misunderstood, and others are definitely non-myths."

The Redditor believes that, "we are ignorant on many critical subjects, because: "a) we get a really bad education from the state, and b) we are being bombarded daily with misleading information that aims to serve the best interests of the powerful few -not the people, and that's a fact, not a myth, that's the world we live in."

#5

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That being out in cold weather will make you catch a Cold. The cold is a virus you catch from others and nothing to do with the outside temperature.

The_Geordie_Gripster , Kristin Vogt Report

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Waite Forit
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is basis of truth in this one. People stay inside more during cold weather. Spending more time with other people in an enclosed space makes you more likely to be exposed to any viruses that might be around. Also, studies have found that airborne viruses are carried farther by the more denser cold air. Therefore, there is a greater chance of airborne viruses touching a person rather than ending up on the ground.

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#6

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That you have to wait 24 hours before filing a missing person report.

Alex Green Report

Ironically, as much as we like to think that we value truth, we have also designed the world in a way that makes it really hard for it to travel between us.

There's a well-known MIT study from 2018 that analyzed the spread of news stories on Twitter. Using data drawn from 3 million platform users from 2006 to 2017, the researchers, led by Soroush Vosoughi, a computer scientist who is now at Dartmouth, found that fact-checked news stories moved differently through social networks depending on whether they were true or false.

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"Falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth," they wrote in their paper.

#7

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That the hymen is a freshness seal like a snapple cap, has any bearing on virginity, and your first time should hurt and cause bleeding

Honey-and-Venom , DANNY G Report

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Monday
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can break your "freshness seal" by riding a bike....I never understood the obsession.

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#8

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Religion, easily.

I get that people believe in religion but they have zero proof that any of it is true.

DreamerMMA , Noah Holm Report

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#9

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That GMOs are bad. Without GMOs, we wouldn't have a lot of the food we have today.

Th3MadCreator , Ralph (Ravi) Kayden Report

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Panda in the Fake South
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We've been eating GMOs for 1000s of years. That's what selective breeding does. Some of the foods we eat would be poisonous in their original forms

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#10

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That we use 10% of our brain. Power or capacity, this was actually proven to be b******t.

SadFront7566 , Kenny Eliason Report

#11

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That shaving makes hair grow back thicker and longer.

DazzlingDifficulty36 , Christoffer Engström Report

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Anne Marieke Fransen
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When you shave, the hair is cut in two. The lower part of the hair is now the top, where it used.tot be the middle of a hair. The original top of the hair had to move up to skin level and further on and was damaged doing so. And damaged means thinner. So the cut side is al the way up and as thick as possible. And this is what you experience when it grows further on. Massive and thick hair.

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#12

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing I got pregnant in 2002 and people legit told me I shouldn't raise my arms over my head because the cord would wrap around the baby's neck. Not just great grandmas telling me this either. People at my restaurant job fussed at me all the time for getting things off high shelves. Insane.

YouSeaBlue , Jernej Graj Report

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Panda Kicki
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This was hilarious! Can those people please draw a pic on how they think your arms and the cord ia connected?

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#13

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That your generation is always the last good generation.

Special-Sandwich-324 , Everjean Report

#14

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Swallowed gum will stay in your stomach for 7 years. Never seen a single wad of gum in the hundreds of thousands of stomachs I’ve looked into.

DoctorJonesMD , cottonbro Report

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hope you have looked into these stomachs in a professional capacity?

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#15

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Over cracking your knuckles will lead to arthritis.

HairoftheDog89 , Eren Li Report

#16

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That fish only have a 5-second memory. My fish are fed automatically on a timer and they know dinner time better than my goddamn cat.

Osr0 , Brian Wangenheim Report

#17

That your hair and fingernails still grow after you die. It's mainly an optical illusion. Your skin decays and shrinks, causing hair and fingernails to look like they've grown.

CasinoKitten Report

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Mistiekim
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Who’s worried about this anyway? Is someone thinking they’ll have to take the corpse to a hair salon for a trim and manicure?

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#18

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That birds will abandon their babies if they have a human scent on them.

Dora_Rock , Maurice Schalker Report

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birdie
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

it can be looked as a good thing that this myth was made, keeps children (or anyone for that matter) from snatching them

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#19

That cats kill babies.

I’ve run into this so many times since having kids. And it’s not the older grandmas making these statements. I’ve had 20 year olds tell me that you can’t have cats if you plan to have babies because “they’ll steal their breath” or some other variation. No amount of reasoning or rationale will dissuade them of this belief

anothertimesometime Report

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Chucky Cheezburger
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've always hears that this come from cats that end up sleeping on a baby and the baby can't breath. I have no idea if this is true or not.

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#20

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Circumcision is medically beneficial enough to be *routinely* done to every male infant born, rather than just like.. you know… waiting to see if it’s actually necessary.

Fit-ish_Mom , Carlo Navarro Report

#21

Pit bulls can lock their jaws. If they bite you then you have to kill them because their jaws are locked.

No, I am not kidding. I’ve heard this BS from the elderly and from kids. They just keep repeating this nonsense.

Not_the_EOD Report

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Waite Forit
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only if it is a hybrid created in a Chinese research lab and one of its parents was a snapping turtle.

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#22

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing 90% of the myths surrounding pregnancy and childbirth.

If the baby’s heart rate is fast it’s a girl. If you crave sweet things it’s a girl, if you are carrying “high” it’s a girl.

They’re the only ones I can think of at the moment but there are so many other myths out there.

squeephish , freestocks Report

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das aprilkind
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

funnily enough I had a major sweet tooth in both my girl pregnancies and was craving savoury foods with my boy. Didn't know about that belief though...

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#23

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Lightning never strikes the same place twice.

SuvenPan , Dan Meyers Report

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Waite Forit
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As Fleetwood Mac would say, “Lightning strikes maybe once, maybe twice.”

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#24

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Someone can be tested to determine their virginity status. Hymens aren't barriers, they aren't supposed to be broken, and they heal when they do tear. No one, not even a doctor can look at someone and know they're a virgin or not.

Much_Elephant , Clay Banks Report

#25

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Bulls become angry seeing the color red.

SuvenPan , Giovanni Calia Report

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Kookamunga
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Bulls become angry when men in stupid Prince outfits taunt them while crowds cheer and then the poor bulls get speared. Absolutely disgusting.

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#26

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That reading in dim lighting will cause you to lose your eyesight.

Dora_Rock , BENCE BOROS Report

#27

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing If you watch the TV too much or too close, you will go blind

rhi_x , Jens Kreuter Report

#28

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing You eat 8 spiders a lifetime

Your_Enabler , James Petts Report

#29

One that's still not known well is the white people in the south and middle America that think they are part Cherokee. You're like 99.9% sure to be wrong. Your family is wrong. There wasn't a "Cherokee princess" or any of that. It's a folks tale basically. And your grandma was told the same as a kid, she told your mom, hour mom td you.

People get defensive about this because you have to accept that A) Your family accidentally mislead you on something your whole life, and B) you don't have some magic Cherokee princess Native American blood. You're just white.

This is what happened with Elizabeth Warren. She was told this tale and believed she was part Cherokee. I was also told this and believed it while growing up. Almost all of my friends were told the same about themselves too.

Just a folk tale passed down the generations

appleparkfive Report

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CaptainDinosaur
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

100% true. I heard the same c**p my whole life. Did the old 23&me test... ZERO native DNA. I'm literally more Neanderthal than Native American.

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#30

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Carrots improve vision. Has to be on the list for top propaganda campaigns. Started in WWII to cover for the use of radar. Still to this day more people I meet believe it than don't.

Neither-Storage-4157 , Markus Spiske Report

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Susie Elle
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Carrots contain beta-carotene which is converted to vitamin A in the body, which in turn binds to a protein in the eye to make rhodopsin. Rhodopsin is a light-absorbing molecule necessary for low-light and colorvision. In turn, the absence of vitamin A can cause nightblindbess. So in a way, carrots can improve your eyesight.

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Note: this post originally had 54 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.