Someone Asked, “What Do You Strongly Suspect But Have No Proof Of?”, And 30 People Spilled Their Thought-Provoking Theories (New Answers)
Intuition is a funny thing. It appears in our consciousness without obvious deliberation and often doesn't even require any evidence.
However, psychologists don't think our gut feeling is magical, but rather a faculty in which hunches are generated by the unconscious mind rapidly sifting through past experience and cumulative knowledge.
Sounds interesting, but rather vague, no? So to find out more about the ways our psyche manifests itself, we at Bored Panda put together a new list of stories where people suspect something to be true but can't actually prove it.
From government conspiracies to rigged sports games, continue scrolling to check them out and if you want more similar observations, fire up our older publication on the same topic.
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My smartphone is listening to me and pushes advertisements based on what I say.
I can prove this. This is not a conspiracy or anything like that. It's true.
Great, can you show us your proof? All the investigations I've seen have come up empty (and seem to prove that ad companies gather enough information from your search history, GPS, social media, contact list, etc. to make using the microphone redundant).
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They don't need to listen. It is sufficient that they know where you are for how long, which sites you visit, which people you see and where they have been / what they purchased.
I tried it mulitple times, talk over my phone that I want a special thing, no ad popped up about it. Maybe the phone is old, maybe I don't allow to use the microphone if it's not a call, maybe it's because I don't use english around the phone, it could be true, but I have no experience about it.
All I do know is your phone shares data with the phones of those your have been near, on the same modem as etc. That's why if I use or buy a particular product, or look it up, it's likely that stuff can appear as ads etc on the phones of others I know, and vice versa. That happens, and is creepy enough 😬
Let’s see both alligators and then decide what we think of this post. Are our phones listening? I hope so or they’re sentient. Are they pushing ads based on what I say? No. That’s silly. There’s plenty of data more easily gained by app-makers & the like to do this.
Sometimes I swear my phone can pick up on my thoughts. There has been times I have only been thinking about something and then 10 minutes later, BAM! I get a whole bunch of adds for what I was thinking of. I logically know that my phone can't *hear* my thoughts, but it is so tripy when this happens.
You can test this yourself. Choose a topic or product that you would never use as part of a discussion. Don't type it into Google. Have fun!
Of course this is true. But you can turn off the microphone in your settings so that the apps cant access it.
It's true. I mean, if Google, Alexa and Siri can answer at a seconds call, they must always be listening, even if just for "Hey Siri/Google/Alexa"
It's true that those apps in particular are always listening for the trigger phrase ("ok Google", for example), but is it true that they're always listening and analysing what you say in order to target ads at you? The companies say "no, we don't even need to do that because we have enough information about people without recording their conversations - so why bother?" Many people believe the companies are lying, and they may be - but is there any proof (beyond anecdotal "I said this and then got an ad for it 5 minutes later")?
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If your sibling leaves their smartphone near you, get close to it and say "dildo" 20 to 30 times and see what happens.
The other day I went to a big box store to make a purchase. I used my credit card. When I got home, I had an email from Paypal that I could get a discount the next time I shop at that store if I paid through PP. Too weird.
Sometimes i think that too. Recently a friend recommended me a new manga I've never heard of before and google already presented it to me the next time I used it. I never googled that manga before, I didn't even know it existed. Yet I'm not sure weither it actually listens or if it's so good at reading my data results that it can guess at which times I'd stumble over a specific product I'd probably be interested in. On the other hand it also gives me sports news even though I hate them and usually even tell it to remove them again and again.
Ad companies can know who their users' friends are via social media connections, if they've shared an IP address (connecting to the same WiFi), being in proximity to each other, etc. and can serve ads based on friends interests. So maybe the algorithm goes, "hey this person bought this manga from Amazon, googled it, posted about it on social media. This person knows zedrapazia - they follow each other on ig, they once both connected to the same cafe's WiFi at the same time, they're similar age, in the same location, share the same interests - I see zedrapazia has bought a different manga before. Let's serve zedrapazia this ad based on what the friend likes". Maybe that's why you get sports ads too - someone in your network likes sports, so the algorithm thinks you might do too.
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I believe most of not all cell phone carriers to this to ANY phones on their system
Im not a conspiracy theory follower as my life has been based in science so i offer these data. My daughter has some health issues that lead to tremors. I made a comment to her when she was visiting that we need to also examine things that can cause Tardive Dyskinesia. I did not look it up as am a medical practitioner and am familiar with it. The next day an ad popped up on my phone stating "Learn more about Tardive Dyskinesia. Click on this link". I know "they" say they are not listening but perhaps "they protest too much"?
Yep, my mom and I both purposefully talked about riverdancing. Just something completely random af and guess what popped up in our respective phones?...
My cousin was asking advice on what coffee maker to buy. For the next few days, both of us saw coffee maker ads all day.
This is old news and widely confirmed. It's depressing that this wasn't immiedietly obvious to everyone when voice assistants became a thing. Don't hit a button, don't open an app just say "ok google" or "hey siri" and give your command. That means that your device, whether a phone, Cortona on windows, a console or a smart speaker, is ALWAYS listening. All of that voice data is saved on a server somewhere, and while there isn't any program that requires employees to review those logs....it does happen. Most allow you to download a copy of your transcribed voice records now. Aside from the voice assist commands, they listen for advertising/marketing words, threats of suicide or other violence. They're always listening....because they want to sell you a new butt plug.
"widely confirmed" - do you mean widely confirmed that companies use this data for advertising? Citation please
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Not surprising, what I'm annoyed at is it's stupidity. I thought they were supposed to advertise similar things, not where I've already been and bought!!
I had a scary moment though once: a few years back I was thinking of getting another tattoo. I didn't search fir one, I didn't look up artwork or images, I never once said it outloud. Next thing I know my inbox is full of pinterest suggestions of tattoos in exactly what I was thinking of and Instagram was suggesting accounts for tattoo artists near me. That scares me to this day.
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this is true there was a person that did an experiment on this and it was listening to him
This happened when I was talking about bras with someone and how I needed a new one. Later on Instagram I got several ads for the exact shop we were talking about. Good bras though.
This isnt a conspiracy, by agreeing to your apps and your phone allowing microphone, its allowed to send info to 3rd parties and that pushes advertising that's applicable to you.
Not quite. Agreeing to the app using your microphone and agreeing that the app can send info to 3rd parties are two separate parts of the terms and services we click agree to usually without reading. But do we have evidence that the info companies share with 3rd parties includes audio recordings or analysis derived therefrom?
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I have proof. My mom and I were talking about how we would like to try to eat a whole lobster one day. Neither of us has ever done this before and it had not come up at all until then. That evening we both got videos about how to properly remove all of the meat from a lobster on our You Tube recommended videos feed. We didn't search for anything seafood related prior, during or after our conversation. Nor had we been anywhere recently that serves it. I've also had the same thing happen when I was talking to someone on the other end of the country.
This is pretty well known t be true. And you give them permission. Apps ask for microphone access for a reason.
That apps can use your microphone *is* known to be true. That these apps use your microphone at all times and analyse the audio feed in order to target ads at you specifically is *thought* to be true but not *known* to be true.
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Yeah, not a conspiracy any more - check through your settings and you'll find one for listening ads that you can turn off
"listening ads" - where is this in the settings? Screenshot?
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Ancient civilisations were far more advanced than we're led to believe
Donald Trump's behavior makes me believe he's in the early stages of dementia.
Well I remember savage beatings at the hands of my parents and siblings but now that I’m an adult everyone denies it they say it never happened and I feel my mind slowly slipping away, I think I’m crazy.
Gaslighting. I feel for this person. My friend has undeniable evidence of mistreatment, is trying currently to face their family, and bring met with flat denial. It is horrible.
That I got my job as charity and therapy. I came back from a combat tour a total wreck. I stayed at my uncle's home for a month and I was already drinking too much and couldn't sleep without nightmares, the kind where you wake the house up from yelling and punching air. My uncle owned 4 restaurants and soon had me working in two of his kitchens 70 hours a week. I threw myself into the work because I had no social life; in six months, I was kitchen manager at his busy 24/7 restaurant. I did an excellent job but unc paid me 50% over the local scale. I think he hired me initially just to keep me out of trouble.
I once started a small bar in the city. We were doing really well. Then in a matter of months I got absolutely distroyed by the police. Every day they were there looking for the smallest infrigment of any code. If some one was smoking less then 6 meters from my door I would hear about it. If some one had an open beer within a mile, i would hear about it. We were constantly told to keep the live music down even though there are literally no residential neighbours, NONE. Eventually we closed down.
Within a few weeks of this happening I realized that the other people that owned a bar near by had had a serious decrease in sales since we opened and since they had been a long time contributor to the local political scene I think they got the cops to shut us down.
No proof. Just a hunch.
Apple is sabotaging my phone so I buy the new iPhone. The same day the iPhone X dropped my phone started have minor problems.
They did get done for that at some point didn't they? Got found out to be slowing older Apple phones deliberately?
World leaders and the world’s richest people have hidden bunkers all over the world they can hide in if things go tits up. It’s a secret club and we ain’t in it.
Again. Not conspiracy, but fact. If end of days or similar happened, world leaders are ready
I'm convinced there are definitely "sea monsters" out there. The ocean's so big I'm sure there's at least one large, undiscovered, sea creature out there.
That the NSA has stopped several terror attacks.
They told Congress they never have, but I believe it's actually a cover-up. Can you imagine if they admitted they stopped, say, 5 major terror acts in the last 6 months?
Woud that make you feel safer? Of course not. It would scare the shit out of us and destroy tourism to major cities.
I think Men In Black put it best:
"Man, we ain't got no time for this cover-up BULLSHIT! There's an alien battlecruiser about to---"
"There's always an alien battlecruiser! Or a Korillian Deathray! Or an intergalactic plague that will wipe out life on this planet. The only way these people get on with their happy little lives is they do not know about it!"
You are correct. My cousins husband was in the the CIA and he can’t say much but what he would tell me is: for every one we know about them stopping, there were at least 10 we don’t know about. So we know of about 1/10 of the attempts at terrorism. He also said, he knows the stuff we don’t want to know about. He promised we’d know more upon his death.
So I worked at a certain venue for a while, and the owners liked me, so they kept me around despite me being a slow learner on the job (waitstaff).
The venue got brought a few months ago, and the new owners have a totally different vision for it. Some of the old staff stuck around, including myself, but many left.
I strongly suspect that I was given a job at the new venue as a request of the old owners. I don't fit the mould of the people they hire at all, and I really got the impression that they weren't sure what to do with me at the start.
I may never know, but I'm pretty thankful to the old owners regardless.
Astronomer here! I very strongly suspect there is life beyond Earth in the universe, and there’s a good chance it exists elsewhere even in our solar system. I can’t prove it however, but would be astounded if it wasn’t the case- life is just a chemical process when you get down to it, so why would that process be so unique as to happen only once when we see all the ones we can measure repeat all over?
I also suspect though it will be nowhere near as exciting as most people think it will be, due to Hollywood films. Rather, it will be like finding water on Mars- speculating it’s there, finding the first evidence that it may have existed at one point, and after a ton of intermediate steps concluding there is definitely water on Mars. First we will probably find a chemical signature from an exoplanet that may be from life or have another explanation, then something more solid, and then with all the steps on the way after years a conclusion that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Not very Hollywood, but very in line with how science works!
I just remember someone saying that if Earth was the only life in the entire Universe, what an incredible waste of space it would be.
I seriously suspect that people get more reckless and angry when the weather is hotter. I just can't find a way to prove it without being Mr Burns and blocking out the sun.
This is absolutely true. Good weather brings more assholes out onto the streets or public areas. They never come out when it rains. This is why I always hate sunny weather and love rain
Life doesn't end when we die. Everything else in this world is recycled, why wouldn't our consciousness also be?
Public Schools purposely don't teach finance to most of their students. If they did, very few would agree to the conditions of their student loan notes, which would lead to a decline in college matriculation and in general make the school look bad.
Retired business teacher, high school here. Do you know how many times I tried to teach budgeting, or savings accounts for future needs, 401K's, interest rates, credit cards........? Most of the time it was met with "I don't need those things till I'm old." I tried to relate how they would need all these things the minute they walk out of their childhood home. "Daddy will help me if I need it." Yes, it was an affluent section of Connecticut. Even the parents say they don't need to know this right now. WHEN??????????!!!!!!!!!! I have had a few come back and thank me. That is what kept me going.
Jennifer Lawrence faked her trip walking up on the Oscar stage, and faked her trip again the next year on the orange cone in order to sell her crafted quirky, girl-next-door persona
Nope, for several reasons: 1) On the first trip, she was wearing a sponsored dress (Dior). It would be a bad advertisement for Dior. 2) In an interview Liam Hemsworth said that J-Law had been tripped on multiple occasions behind the camera during their Hunger Games promotion. He said those trips were genuine, she was a very very clumsy girl. 3) There was a story of J-Law tripped again on a pre-shoot talk show. She forced the studio to delete it, but the studio crew talked 😂
That my coworker is deliberately trying to drive me insane.
I bring lunch with me to work most days, and Every day,without fail and no matter what I have for lunch, she comes into the staff room at lunch and says in her nasaly voice "oohh that smells good! Can I have some??"
Same joke, every single workday.
So finally, one day, I brought in one of my normal lunch staples, and also brought a little extra for her to try. She came into the staff room and said her normal "oohh that smells good! Can I have some??" to which I pulled out a pyrex dish and offered her some. She seemed to recoil a bit, like she was simultaneously surprised and disgusted. She paused for a minute and said "oh...no thanks I'm heading out for lunch" and quickly walked away
Next day at lunch she was right back to "oohh that smells good! Can I have some??"
"That smells good, can I ha..." No b***h, get your own damn food"
That my sister is my half sister.
There's a bunch of s**t that makes me think she resembles and has habits like somebody my mother "knew".
Get dna tests for both of you for Christmas. On second thoughts, don't.
That I got fired from my job because the boss was friends with a family I had a falling out with. Guess when their son sexually assaulted me it was suppose to be my fault. But I can't prove it and they won't say.
I believe my father might have been killed by his wife. We had no real proof other than the words of that lady's former friend. Once he died we realized everything had been taken out of my name and left to her.
That the "shuffle" feature on my iPhone isn't random at all. Far too often I'll get the same artist back-to-back, or even two songs from the same album right after the other. I suspect Apple pushes some bands that either have new albums, or are touring in my area soon, to subliminally promote the artists.
Starbucks is burning the s**t out of their black coffee in a plot to make us all pay more for sugared up and flavored drinks.
There's bleeding edge technology not available to the public and perhaps only available to a selected bunch. I mean, touch screens were invented in the 70s, but didn't become popular until the 00s. Yes, they were more expensive to make back then but still. F**k knows what they've invented now.
This has always been the case with technology. Some things just never get cheap enough to commercialize before some other solution/work around is found. IBM created mass holographic storage systems decades ago, but they never met the markets needs or prove points. Laser discs/cd-roms were invented by the military decades before commercial application and costs allowed thier use.
That the NBA is rigged. I don't think they want specific winners per se, but I think they want to ensure that there are superstars to drum up business. To that end refs always favor the big name athletes.
Yeah just look up videos of king baby taking 5+ steps yet no travel call, or while dribbling carry the f**k outta the ball.
That the heads of organizations like the FBI and CIA are not the real heads and the real ones are way more secretive
You have to understand that the "heads" of most government agencies, state and federal, are basically politicians. Few know little, if anything, about the actual functioning of the agency. Yes, other people are actually running things...not because they are clandestine, but because it is just their job to do the business of the agency.
I believe two of my coworkers are having an affair, based on the way they act around each other, and they keep it secret because one of them is married.
That the milk corporations really want dominance over the breakfast beverage market.
1. I once read that the dairy companies petitioned/bribed/lobbied whoever made/remade the food pyramid to have a significantly noticeable portion dedicated solely to "Dairy".
2. I once saw a "got milk" ad that was pretty much a personal attack against almond milk. I always wondered why they would spend resources just to reduce the name of a minor competitor
That there is no difference in the effect from different alcohols. Saying "whiskey makes me sad" "red wine makes girls angry" "tequila makes clothes come off" etc is all (I believe) Pavlovian.
If you are at a crazy party, people tend to do tequila shots. SO, you assume that tequila shots make you crazy. If you got in a fight with someone while drunk on gin, you will associate gin with anger. Same goes for the rest of them.
Yeah this has been studied and is correct. Alcohol depresses higher brain function, so your brain stops inhibiting your emotions. Therefore alcohol acts as an emotional amplifier, it doesn't give you the emotion to start with. Probably a confusion of cause and effect - sad people drink "sad" drinks, get sadder &c
Note: this post originally had 51 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Ah, thanks for letting me know before I waste time trying to get the stupid post to load! Hope you have a good day!
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I’m sure my ex-stepdad made a half-assed attempt to kill me when I was thirteen. We never liked each other. One day he asked for help looking at something in my mom’s car, a little Toyota Corona wagon. It was parked on an angled driveway. He asked me to stand behind it and keep it from rolling back while he checked something on the brakes, and then he released the parking brake and put it in neutral. It took everything I had to keep the car from rolling over me, and I was screaming at him to put the brakes back on. He was yelling back that I just needed to hold it a little longer. I think he came to his senses when I started to slip, and he put the car back in gear and pulled the parking brake. Then he chastised me for being too weak to hold “such a little car” back and walked away.
I think Covid lockdown has made people more selfish. So many poeple now seem to give zero phooks than before it all.
I don't think it made them more selfish as such; it just made them more likely to act like it. Like Trump didn't make more racists, he just made it okay to be be overtly racist.
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I have a sweet story where I'm 100% sure of something, but will never be able to corroborate it. When I was a small child, I gathered & planted a bunch of seeds/weeds/twigs/etc in the hope of growing something. I watered the area morning & night for several days until I woke up one day to find a beautiful flower "sprouting" from my little dirt pile. Even at 6yrs old, I knew a flower can't grow 6" and fully bloom overnight, but my Dad will never admit to putting it there & will surely take his "secret" to the grave, lol. All to make me feel special — best Dad ever! ❤
This is going to sound so farfetched and I promise I'm actually a smart and logical person, but I personally think dragons used to exist for real and possibly still could. I mean, I feel like coming up with that sort of thing is hard to do and there were creatures similar to them. Idk, maybe I just love dragons a lot, but I really do think they were real at some point (and maybe still are).
The Department for Work and Pensions (the UK agency that handles unemployment benefits etc.) secretly has a computer program that spits out random names and addresses, and if yours comes up they'll mess with your benefit claim and make you jump through a few hoops, just on the off-chance that you're trying to cheat the system.
Beyonce was never pregnant with blue ivy; she used a surrogate. There I said it.
That the government poison-pills conspiracy theories, adding absurd, easily falsifiable elements to them so no-one believes conspiracy theories that the government doesn't want people to believe in.
Probably should add: just because the government doesn't want you to beleive in a conspiracy theory, doesn't make it true.
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Tech Companies in the early 2000's: - Engeneer: Hey, we have the technology to build a very cheap 2Tb usb drive. -CEO: release a 16mb drive and we'll upgrade a few mb per year.
Donny T does not have alzheimers, he is just a serial liar, cheat and gets away with it. That's why he has daily "big baby" tantrums. If someone could get to the bottom of things, they would find out the only reason he had power is because he has dirt on every single Republican candidate (so they will do his bidding). Also pertains to WORLD LEADERS.
I think the FBI has a media division that posts stories just like this one.
This may seem a little random, but I strongly think that Miles Moralas will be in the MCU with Tom Hardy's Venom
Ah, thanks for letting me know before I waste time trying to get the stupid post to load! Hope you have a good day!
Load More Replies... I’m sure my ex-stepdad made a half-assed attempt to kill me when I was thirteen. We never liked each other. One day he asked for help looking at something in my mom’s car, a little Toyota Corona wagon. It was parked on an angled driveway. He asked me to stand behind it and keep it from rolling back while he checked something on the brakes, and then he released the parking brake and put it in neutral. It took everything I had to keep the car from rolling over me, and I was screaming at him to put the brakes back on. He was yelling back that I just needed to hold it a little longer. I think he came to his senses when I started to slip, and he put the car back in gear and pulled the parking brake. Then he chastised me for being too weak to hold “such a little car” back and walked away.
I think Covid lockdown has made people more selfish. So many poeple now seem to give zero phooks than before it all.
I don't think it made them more selfish as such; it just made them more likely to act like it. Like Trump didn't make more racists, he just made it okay to be be overtly racist.
Load More Replies... I have a sweet story where I'm 100% sure of something, but will never be able to corroborate it. When I was a small child, I gathered & planted a bunch of seeds/weeds/twigs/etc in the hope of growing something. I watered the area morning & night for several days until I woke up one day to find a beautiful flower "sprouting" from my little dirt pile. Even at 6yrs old, I knew a flower can't grow 6" and fully bloom overnight, but my Dad will never admit to putting it there & will surely take his "secret" to the grave, lol. All to make me feel special — best Dad ever! ❤
This is going to sound so farfetched and I promise I'm actually a smart and logical person, but I personally think dragons used to exist for real and possibly still could. I mean, I feel like coming up with that sort of thing is hard to do and there were creatures similar to them. Idk, maybe I just love dragons a lot, but I really do think they were real at some point (and maybe still are).
The Department for Work and Pensions (the UK agency that handles unemployment benefits etc.) secretly has a computer program that spits out random names and addresses, and if yours comes up they'll mess with your benefit claim and make you jump through a few hoops, just on the off-chance that you're trying to cheat the system.
Beyonce was never pregnant with blue ivy; she used a surrogate. There I said it.
That the government poison-pills conspiracy theories, adding absurd, easily falsifiable elements to them so no-one believes conspiracy theories that the government doesn't want people to believe in.
Probably should add: just because the government doesn't want you to beleive in a conspiracy theory, doesn't make it true.
Load More Replies... Tech Companies in the early 2000's: - Engeneer: Hey, we have the technology to build a very cheap 2Tb usb drive. -CEO: release a 16mb drive and we'll upgrade a few mb per year.
Donny T does not have alzheimers, he is just a serial liar, cheat and gets away with it. That's why he has daily "big baby" tantrums. If someone could get to the bottom of things, they would find out the only reason he had power is because he has dirt on every single Republican candidate (so they will do his bidding). Also pertains to WORLD LEADERS.
I think the FBI has a media division that posts stories just like this one.
This may seem a little random, but I strongly think that Miles Moralas will be in the MCU with Tom Hardy's Venom
