In a world that’s in a constant state of change, you can never stop learning. That’s why many of us are always hungry for tasty knowledge bites and nibbles of information to help us better navigate our surroundings. However, as much as it is easy to be amazed by what humanity and nature are capable of, there’s also a darker side we often overlook.
So quite recently, Redditor RefrigeratorDry495 decided to learn more about it and reached out to AskReddit to start up a thread about simple yet incredibly disturbing and scary facts. People from far and wide rolled up their sleeves and started typing out responses that really are not for the faint of heart.
From creepy stuff about our past to alarmingly unsettling statistics, we at Bored Panda handpicked some of the most popular answers from the thread. So if you’re ready to witness how real life can be far more terrifying than fiction, continue scrolling and share your thoughts with us in the comments! A small note of warning, though, some of these facts can seem a bit overwhelming, so if you’re in great need of something lighter, take a look at our recent post full of wholesome stories right here.
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Sharks have been around for at least 420 million years, meaning they have survived four of the “big five” mass extinctions. That makes them older than humanity, older than Mount Everest, older than dinosaurs, older even than trees. Yet we could potentially see them extinct in our lifetime
If a biological trait is common in almost every human, then it evolved for a reason. Almost everybody has the same response to the "uncanny valley," or in other words we are made uncomfortable by things that look almost human but not quite. This implies humans once had a reason to fear something that looks human but isn't.
Egyptian mummies wouldn’t be so rare today if the Victorian British hadn’t eaten most of them.
If there’s one thing that never ceases to amaze us, it's the amount of knowledge in the world. We can spend a lifetime trying to make sense of our surroundings by gathering new information every chance we get. One additional perk is that we get to spice up dull conversations and come up with new brilliant ideas to make this planet just a tad better.
More often than not, however, we applaud and celebrate the technological breakthroughs that we humans manage to create and also the mesmerizing beauty of the natural world. Let’s be honest, the disturbing and scary facts about real life may catch our attention, but they’re bound to send shivers down our spines. Sure, it’s better to be safe than sorry, but who really wants to know about massive super volcanos or missing nuclear weapons that have never been recovered? That's nightmare material right there.
You have no way of really knowing if everyone experiences reality and consciousness the same way you do.
Statistically speaking, if you are a woman and get murdered, it was most likely by a family member, partner or ex-partner, in your own home.
If you are a man and get murdered, it was most likely by an acquaintance or stranger, in a public place.
I watch a lot of true crime, and when a woman gets murdered it's actually surprising when it turns out NOT to be the boyfriend/husband.
Maximum part of oxygen came from sea/oceans. But people always talks about protecting trees not sea/oceans.
If i am not mistaken (correct me if i am) algae and corrals do most of the work converting Carbon dioxide to oxygen
But it looks like turning a blind eye to the uneasy side of life is not that easy. You see, there’s one thing we humans are wired to do — seek out the gloom. As daunting as that may sound, we have this tendency to give more significance to negative thoughts than positive or neutral ones, something the experts call the negativity bias.
Rick Hanson, Ph.D., psychologist and author of Hardwiring Happiness, explained that humans evolved to be fearful, and it helped keep us alive. "This vulnerability to feeling threatened has effects at many levels, ranging from individuals, couples, and families, to schoolyards, organizations and nations," he wrote and stressed how important it is to be aware of how our brains become wary if we want to regain some amount control in the way we perceive the world.
the world invests more money in viagra and botox than in the study of Alzheimer
Moving back the start time for school in an area resulted in 70% less car accidents.
Similarly at each daylight saving, heart attacks and accidents decrease with an hour of extra sleep and increase with an hour less of sleep.
Sleep is crazy important.
Moving back the start time would mean less sleep though right? ..I'm just confused on that part because it resulted in less accidents when school was earlier but similarly the extra hours sleep meant less heart attacks and accidents..sleep is important but wouldn't you be losing sleep if the school run was earlier ?
Cotard's syndrome, also called "walking corpse syndrome," is a condition wherein the patient believes they are dead, dying, missing parts of their bodies, or don't exist.
Some people with Cotard's syndrome may stop speaking or eating since they believe they're dead.
Hanson stated that the nervous system has been evolving for 600 million years. "Our ancestors had to make a critical decision many times a day: approach a reward or avoid a hazard,” he wrote. People had to find food, have children, and hide from predators to survive and avoid threats.
However, if our ancestors missed out on food one day, they could easily find some more the next. But if they failed to dodge potential dangers, they didn't get the chance to pass on their genes to future generations. "Consequently, your body generally reacts more intensely to negative stimuli than to equally strong positive ones," Hanson explained.
You can condition someone with zero personal/family history of mental illness into having some very severe mental illnesses within about a week.
The entire planet could be immediately destroyed by any one of a number of cosmic events that we have no way of seeing or stopping like rogue black holes.
Worse...there are some events we can very much see coming, but do absolutely nothing about.
Like killing Earth. Last I knew of we can't just move to another planet.
I read somewhere ( don’t remember where) that you are more likely to be bitten by someone in New York than to be bitten by a shark.
"The alarm bell of your brain — the amygdala (you’ve got two of these little almond-shaped regions, one on either side of your head) — uses many of its neurons to look for bad news: it’s primed to go negative in most people," the psychologist continued. "Once it sounds the alarm, negative events and experiences get quickly stored in memory — in contrast to positive events and experiences, which are not prioritized in the same way."
But while this is a great way to pass on gene copies, our quality of life has been improving significantly and proving we don’t actually need to feel afraid or anxious all of the time. To lead a healthy and fulfilling life, we need to better grasp this tendency to focus on the negativities and understand that things are usually not as bad. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the discomforting things around you, try to pay attention to what’s in front of you.
Yellowstone is a giant super volcano. If it blows, things on this planet will go really bad really fast.
Is there any geologist here? How many super volcanoes do exist on the Earth?
Every time you move your eyes from one spot to another, you go blind for the instant your eyes are moving. It’s called “Saccadic masking”, it’s an evolutionary trait to stop us from getting motion sick.
Your brain fills in the blank spot with whatever you end up looking at and context clues. It’s why when you first look at a clock, the second hand seems to take longer to click the first time
Chimps don't attack to kill. Instead they aim for the genitals, face, and fingers and will leave the opponent alive.
There have been many people who have owned chimps who have turned on their owners and left them incredibly disfigured. One case, the chimp ripped a man's junk off. In all cases, faces were mutilated and fingers were chewed off. It's pretty much how they instinctively fight in the wild.
So if you think that chimp is going to be a cute pet, better think twice. Even if you raised it since it was born, they'll turn on you at any second. A disfigurement roulette waiting to happen.
Vile creatures.
I think anyone who keeps a chimp as a pet is rather asking for problems. They aren't meant to be pets!
I think you mean 'wild' creatures. They are not vile. They are humanised wild animals and then people are surprised when one attacks them. Leave wild animals in the wild.
Not quite. See Gombe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War
Load More Replies...Vile creatures? I hope op meant the jerks who essentially keep prisoner chimps and other wild animals not ever meant to be pets. They're the vile creatures, not the poor chimps.
Chimps are pretty nasty with each other and other smaller primates, they'll kill for dominance (and eat the loser). That behaviour is not exclusive to chimps of course, but people tend to think a chimp is less dangerous than a lion for instance. Vile is a bit harsh though, they don't behave like that for fun, it's really survival of the fittest. They are absolutely not pets and belong in the wild.
One thing to consider when assessing the danger of an animal to humans: Humans are experts of persistence. We *evolved* to be able to go for hours and hours without tiring, when every other animal would have collapsed from overheating. However, among other things we sacrificed *short-time strength* for this (they require different types of muscle tissue, so you can't excel in both at the same time). If an animal looks like it should be about as strong as a human - it's much stronger than that. If it looks like it should be stronger - it's way, *way* stronger. Humans should never, ever, underestimate the strength of other animals.
Load More Replies...The last line of this post really rubbed me the wrong way. Chimps are wild animals that have their own social system and behaviors that have evolved over millions of years to help them survive as a species. They are not meant to be pets, period. Humans also do way more harm to each other in hundreds of different ways then pretty much most other species of animal.
I heard a story where someone had locked herself in her car cause her pet chimp ripped her friends face off
That's a very famous, well known story about Travis the chimp. He did more than just rip her face off. Poor woman.
Load More Replies...Crazy, it's almost like we maybe shouldn't be holding wild animals captive. I don't blame the "vile creatures" at all in this situation. Unless by "vile creatures" you mean "people".
Wild can be tamed, but it is not domesticated. It takes multiple generations of breeding for docility for a wild animal to be domesticated. Look up the Siberian Fox experiment.
People having chimps as pets are the vile creatures. Chimps just react like evolution have taught them to.
They're not vile if they're put in a place they have no business being in
When I learned that Chimpanzees will eat monkeys, it changed my world. FIRST of all, until recently I thought Chimpanzees WERE monkeys...
Technically all apes are also monkeys. Apes are a tail-less subset rather than an entirely sperate grouping.
Load More Replies...I remember a true story about a chimp owner in the States had a female friend come visit and the chimp attacked the visitor. The poor woman had her face ripped off and her eyes mangled so she ended up having to have her face reattached and was totally blind. It was truly horrific :(
There is a reason if you ever watch a zoological program on the tv, the zookeepers are never in the same space as large primates. There is always cage walls separating the keeper from the animal. And what they don't tell you, if they are ever doing any kind of medical exam where the primate is anesthetized, there is always someone standing just out of camera frame with a loaded rifle, just in case the animal wakes up. Large primates can be extremely dangerous.
I saw on a Nat Geo or something that they maim and disfigure, purposely going for genitals, faces, etc because it is a purposeful degradation and insult. In the wild, that male won't be competition for breeding. Face missing would make it tough as well. But then you have to walk around and live your life with hideous disfigurement. Scientists believe it is truly malicious behavior with the intent to hurt, shame and ruin the other without killing. Like lifelong torture. Ya know, something like what people do......
Primates do not make good pets. NONE of them. Because they are very social troop oriented creatures, taking just one in a house is very cruel. Many times they get psychotic, biting themselves, pulling their hair out. I really wanted a baby monkey so bad until I did my homework. Please watch this video In Their Own Words: The Sad Stories of Pet Primates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9ZBJ1xqKZ8
the vile creatures are the humans who keep wild animals as pets
They are not vile creatures.....they are wild animals behaving instinctively......leave them in the wild and stop trying to domesticate them....
The only vile creatures are humans that imprison animals without suitable care and space. I do not mean zoos as they do not treat the animals as pets then blame them for natural behaviour.
I appreciate the post stating people shouldn't have them as pets but when you end it with "vile creatures" in such a negative way, well.. you're just a big a*s hypocrite being a human lol.
"Vile creatures" Ok, and humans are so much better right. Simple solution. Keep the wild animals out in the wild. Leave them alone.
I would assume it is illegal in most place to have chimp as pets and where it is not illegal, people probably know better than trying to do that.
Google "chimpanzee alopecia" to see how yoked they are. Basically natural body builders
Humans are waaay more violent but we typically use tools like knives, guns, ropes to hurt or kill.
Keeping any wild animal as a pet is asking for trouble. Ya'll remember Ziegfried & Roy?
Chimpanzees are vile creatures because they might turn on their human captors. No, OP, you're a vile creature.
And isn't it ironic that the gorilla has the aggressive reputation but with no known lethal attacks? smh
"Vile creatures"!!!!!???? Humans do worse to each other. I guess we are vile too.
This could be linked the the uncanny valley post. "I don't trust it, kill it with fire!"
Chimpanzees are not vile creatures. They are highly evolved life forms. The vile creatures are the ones keeping them as pets and getting their "junk ripped off" is well deserved!
No, not the chimp.. Any person who think they are a pet is the vile creature
It hasn't been all that long ago since a woman's friend had her face ripped off by one while she was visiting her home. Made me see them in a different light for sure.
Sounds good to me , I mean humans destroyed their environment and cage them. So their victims do deserve what they get.
Monkeys will do the same thing. People think they are adorable, but an Aunt-in-law died after her pet monkey ripped a body part off her. Exotic animals rarely make safe pets.
Human are the "Vile creatures" not the chimpanzee who is just being themselves.
Why keep a chimp as a pet? Just foster some kids LMAO almost the same experience. Just less chance of physical mutilation.
Not to mention baby chimps cruely torn from their mothers will require you to hold them 24/7 even in the shower for the first two years and cannot EVER be away from you or all hell breaks loose.
No, they're not vile creatures - the selfish idiots who buy them to show off and treat them as though they were dolls or passive household pets are.
It's the people who wlown chimps as pets that are the vile creatures.
Someday imma just get an attack chimp and train him to go for the balls of anyone that annoys me.
Bands of chimps in the wild hunt and kill other primate species, and eat them.
I dont really think it's just a random switch flips and the chimp goes crazy. Something the person did triggered it, even if we don't know what that trigger was. Hell, how many animals actually smile? I bet most other animals would just see teeth being bared and that's a sign of aggression
Vile creatures? I assume you mean the humans that keep them as pets?
Not vile creatures.... incredibly intelligent apes. Very unpredictable and not suitable as pets though
Chimps testicles are twice the size of human's. They are loaded with testosterone.
If you keep a chimp as a pet, and you don't work in a sanctuary, you pretty much deserve to be separated from your junk.
Down vote for the "Vile Creatures" comment. Its a wild animal. Leave it in the wild and you wont have a mutilated face
People keeping a chimp as a pet seem to be the vile creature out of the two
I don't understand the need in calling a wild animal thats behaving like a wild animal, vile? 🤔
So crazy how telling it is about the original poster's view of the natural world by the last sentence. "Vile creatures." Also the most closely related to homo sapiens genetically. Hmm.
They are not vile creatures. They are or should be wild animals. Edit my bad just saw scagsy's comment ...
Oh, come now - the fact that they’re wild apes with the strength of an adult tiger and the disposition of an enraged badger doesn’t make them vile. It’s easy to avoid keeping them as a pet: just do not keep wild jungle animals who can rip your arms out of their sockets as pets, man.
They'll only be vile thousands of years from now, when they've learned to speak, use guns, and blow up the Statue of Liberty.
How are they vile? If someone is stupid enough to have a wild animal at home for a pet they're literally asking for trouble.
Vile creatures indeed. Assuming you were talking about humans who try and keep them as pets.
Chimps have similar DNA to humans... so if they're vile... what does that make us? We do horrible things to our own kind as well as other species.
I love watching them in the wild, but I am terrified of them, for the reasons stated above.
That's the difference between domesticated and wild animals. Even domesticated animals can turn on you, if genetics or treatment is not well...
I.remembe a story in the news about a chimp that ripped off a womans face
Yes, who is really the "VILE" creature here? The one who behaves as instinct tells them? Or the one who tries to force them to be something they aren't. "VILE" creatures shouldn't be kept as pets
I would argue that they aren't vile creatures at all. They are wild animals and people need to realise that wild animals aren't meant to be pets.
They aren't "vile creatures" they are wild intelligent animals! If it's not a domesticated animal it shouldn't be a pet!
They're not vile creatures, they're wild animals that should not be kept as pets
Makes sense when you think about how teenagers act then take what you know about chimps and I can see it happening so clearly! Thank god my daughter wasn’t a chimp !
In order for the chimp to have ripped the man's "junk" off, it would have to have been in the open and on display which has me thinking that perhaps that chimp had a very valid reason to do what it did.
or you know, if it can rip through 3 layers of skin, and much of the meat in a human male genitals, a chimp could probably rip through fabric.
Load More Replies..."Focusing on the things we can control alleviates some of the fear. Change is a part of life. It is in acknowledging this fact that we can live a healthier, less stressful life from day to day," Shari Botwin, LCSW and author of Thriving After Trauma, explained to Bored Panda in an earlier interview.
"It is natural for us to go into flight or fight mode when we feel scared or in danger," she said and added that it’s best to take a minute and assess the situation you are facing. "Ask yourselves, 'Is the fear I am experiencing in my mind and body matching the current situation, or am I also reacting to other events that left me feeling traumatized or stranded in the past?'"
If given access to it, butterflies will happily drink blood.
Despite literally all war propaganda from every country saying otherwise, you are not going to make an individual impact in glorious battle and die valiantly in a hail of bullets. Statistically, you are overwhelmingly more likely to be killed by an explosive device launched miles away by a vehicle you will never see, long before you ever get a chance to pull the trigger.
And literally EVERY country runs its own propaganda in all wars. That includes OUR side in the Ukraine war. Some things are not reported, some things that are reported are not true and some is exaggeration. Some of it isn't even news but is designed to make you support the war itself. Keep your eyes peeled for it. Harder to do when the propaganda involves limiting the outlets for news to their own side only. You have nothing to compare it to..
idk why this freaks some ppl out, but gelatin is made out of bones. That's right - your melted marshmallow in your hot chocolate is melted animal bone. It's good stuff.
That's why the traditional marshmallows aren't vegan or halal...
The trauma specialist suggested that it is best to respond to your fear with words of reassurance and compassion. "Try and put the fear in perspective. Don't go through these feelings alone. Call a friend or talk to a family member. Process what you are feeling so you can sort through where the fear is coming from. Remind yourselves it is perfectly normal to feel afraid at times. It is an emotion that comes and goes, especially if you have experienced anything that left you feeling afraid," Botwin advised.
If it's sufficiently dark, you will hallucinate your reflection as a different entity and it will appear to start moving on it's own.
A male honey bee's ejaculation is so strong it makes his d**k explode, killing him.
I’m friends with a professor of soil ecology here in the Midwest. She says that if we don’t change our current farming practices, much of the Midwest’s soil will be infertile with one to two generations.
Capgras Syndrome is a mental delusion where you believe that the people closest to you have been replaced by impostors
Squirrels carry all the same diseases as rats but humans don’t mind because their cute.
Your phone is likely spying on you right now as you're reading this
The leap in technological advancement from us to a race that could *actually* traverse the galaxy/universe is astronomically ludicrous. We are absolutely nothing in comparison to any race that has created ways to reach us.
Meaning any race capable of finding us would be so advanced and so much more knowledgeable than us that they could observe us without us ever knowing. They would have technologies, weapons, etc outside our realm of understanding and would be able to annihilate us with ease, just given the fact that their ability to generate/harness power would be unparalleled.
If any alien ever came to earth with hostile tendencies, short of a miracle, we’d be doomed.
Good thing they only come here for the a**l probing. Speaking of which...
Alligators can climb trees
Thank goodness there are no alligators here in Australia! *crocodile the size of a van appears* D'OH!
6 nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered since the 1950s.
By the time someone thinks to check out the mysterious object stashed under my house, it will be too late to stop me. MWAHAHAHAH!
Your eyes have a seperate immune-system from the rest of your body. Once your body's immune system discovers you have eyes, it will attack and inflame the blood vessels in the back of your eyes. This can lead to your vision decreasing or even going blind.
The odds of dying in a car accident are 1 in 107.
Not only that you can die in a car only going 40mph and something like 30-percent of the people driving after 10pm are driving drunk.
Driving is super dangerous and most people take it for granted.
I recently learned of 'floppy' physics which explains the phenomena of drunk drivers escaping from fatal accidents with minimal injuries because the alcohol is a relaxant and stops them reacting and tensing during the crash. Other non-intoxicated occupants/pedestrians are not so lucky
Dell computers were so bad that there was a website where you could click a button and it would show someone's random webcam without them knowing.
If you live in a major city there is a nuke aimed at you
If you have a parasite in your body, there's only a slim chance you'll know about it before it pops out of your skin or leaves through the back door.
Also, some parasites pop out of skin.
I had a nightmare about a worm coming out of my leg when I was like 6 or 7. Still remember it
You can be seriously Injured from a sneeze
I was washing up and had plates in both hands when a sneeze came at me. I didn't want to drop the plates so I braced myself for an uncontrolled sneeze. It put my back out. I thought I had slipped a disc and was bedridden for two weeks! The pain was tremendous and I couldn't walk. I had to crawl to my bed. Beware of sneezes, yes they spread diseases but nobody ever talks about the injuries they cause. Beware.
1/3 of US murders go unsolved.
We have trace amounts of iron, gold, nickel, and silver within our bloodstream which means with enough people you could drain them of their blood, dilute it down to separate it, and eventually be able to make a full ingot of iron, gold, nickel, and silver.
If chronic wasting disease jumps to humans, the Zombie Apocalypse may become a real thing.
Masses of dumb people unable to think for themselves and going after people with brains ... Yeah, think it's already here lol...
If a panda finds a fresh carcass, they'll eat it
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You would think they'd get their s$%t together by now..
Load More Replies...As is the case with all of BP's "facts lists", some of these are questionable to say the least.
Honestly the New York one is pretty believable tbh
Load More Replies...This is a 100% true fact. 97% of the time 72% of people are spending 23% of their attention on made up facts. Like this one.
I'm surprised. I didn't know four of these. I collect factoids so this is up my alley
myself and my brother. yesterday i sneezed 13 times in a row. i never, ever sneeze less than 3 times and sometimes as much as 18. i have had to pull over while driving if they decided to come rapid fire.
Here's one: There are these tiny little creatures called pinworms that infect about 20% of children. Here's the process: 1) A child swallows a pinworm egg. 2) The pinworm hatches and chills out in the child's intestines. 3) The female pinworm exits the child's a*s while they sleep, and lays eggs around it. 4) This itches, so a child will likely scratch their a*s 5) Eventually after that, a child is likely to touch their mouth, getting the eggs back into their digestive tract. This cycle continues forever :D
I'm surprised no one posted about how the human body contains about as many microbial cells as it does actual human cells.
Accurate: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.19136#:~:text=It's%20often%20said%20that%20the,to%2Done%2C%20they%20calculate.
Load More Replies...Please, BP, stop with the "unalived" euphemism!!! It trivializes the trauma, plus it's way more jarring than just saying "killed"
Most all of these really bothered me. Hurt my heart. Very sad things here.....
You would think they'd get their s$%t together by now..
Load More Replies...As is the case with all of BP's "facts lists", some of these are questionable to say the least.
Honestly the New York one is pretty believable tbh
Load More Replies...This is a 100% true fact. 97% of the time 72% of people are spending 23% of their attention on made up facts. Like this one.
I'm surprised. I didn't know four of these. I collect factoids so this is up my alley
myself and my brother. yesterday i sneezed 13 times in a row. i never, ever sneeze less than 3 times and sometimes as much as 18. i have had to pull over while driving if they decided to come rapid fire.
Here's one: There are these tiny little creatures called pinworms that infect about 20% of children. Here's the process: 1) A child swallows a pinworm egg. 2) The pinworm hatches and chills out in the child's intestines. 3) The female pinworm exits the child's a*s while they sleep, and lays eggs around it. 4) This itches, so a child will likely scratch their a*s 5) Eventually after that, a child is likely to touch their mouth, getting the eggs back into their digestive tract. This cycle continues forever :D
I'm surprised no one posted about how the human body contains about as many microbial cells as it does actual human cells.
Accurate: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.19136#:~:text=It's%20often%20said%20that%20the,to%2Done%2C%20they%20calculate.
Load More Replies...Please, BP, stop with the "unalived" euphemism!!! It trivializes the trauma, plus it's way more jarring than just saying "killed"
Most all of these really bothered me. Hurt my heart. Very sad things here.....