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The best thing about the internet is that it works like a massive public library, packed with knowledge on nearly every subject you can imagine. The catch, of course, is that not everything gets fact-checked, and plenty of misinformation manages to slip through.
That’s why these Redditors stepped in to set the record straight, debunking popular beliefs many still take as truth but are actually pseudoscience. Scroll down to discover some of their most eye-opening posts and see if any catch you off guard.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Lie detectors.
BoredAtWork1976:
There's a good reason polygraphs aren't admissible in court -- its junk science. It really just measures how much stress the subject is feeling, and then it assumes that any sudden surges in stress mean the subject is lying (as opposed to the subject being stressed because he knows they're trying to pin a crime on him).
Mel in Georgia 3 months ago
Finally - a post I can wholly agree with. Some awful liars can manage their stress very well and will not register one bit on a polygraph machine. Others are the opposite. This should never be used to prove the truth.
RELATED:
#2
Homeopathy
Personality tests (e.g., Myers-Briggs)
Polygraph.
#3
Conversion therapy. you can’t un-gay-ify someone. the methods used are often just "intentionally traumatize this teenager so that they associate homosexuality/transgender identity with suffering".
#5
Chiropractors. If they don’t have peer reviewed journals, it’s pseudoscience. They are at best cracking joints for a lot of your money, at worst hurting you for a lot of your money.
#7
Cleaning products marketing that they are "natural" and/or "organic". Arsenic is natural and organic.
Remi (He/Him) 3 months ago
Botulinum toxin is all natural too. Organic chemistry is way more dangerous than inorganic
#8
"Alpha" based dog training.
#9
The claim that your brain finishes developing at 25.
Mel in Georgia 3 months ago
"Finishes developing" is kinda ambiguous. Structural changes typically end in the mid-20s. Neurological fine-tuning continues into the 30s. But the brain is still fairly plastic and can learn new things beyond that.
#10
Manifesting money by “raising your vibration”? Where’s the proof in that?
Remi (He/Him) 3 months ago
Ok, I always thought that people were saying that as a sort of a joke and no one actually believed it 😅
#11
Gluten intolerance. Gluten free food is a massive scam.
I get there are people with a genuine medically diagnosed gluten intolerance, but there millions now who are self diagnosed (incorrectly) and have been caught up in the scam. My wife being one of them.
All sold to them through the “wellness” marketing machine.
#12
Nutritionist. You want to talk to a dietitian. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist.
EDIT: I can’t believe this comment ended up with 6k upvotes and a gazillion comments lol. And yes I know it’s different in (insert country here). I’m speaking from my experience in the US and Canada.
Remi (He/Him) 3 months ago
If you're in Finland, the person you want is ravitsemusterapeutti, which is a regulated and educated person who can help you. The bs people have (intentionally) deceivingly close names like ravintoterapeutti, ravintoasiantuntija, ravintoneuvoja, ravintovalmentaja, ravitsemusvalmentaja etc
#13
Sending your child to a “program” in the Trouble Teen Industry to get “help” with their mental health only for them to leave with more trauma. Those programs are trash. Wilderness therapy was a therapeutic model created to have a low overhead to maximize profits and serve as a pipeline feeder for residential treatment centers and “therapeutic boarding schools”, often owned by the same parent company….
Breadcrumb. 3 months ago
In theory, camps and therapy could be a great combination. They just did it wrong.
#14
Live Blood analysis.
"Live blood analysis (LBA), also known as darkfield microscopy or live cell analysis, is a method where a small drop of blood is examined under a microscope to assess a person's health. It involves observing the blood's components, like red and white blood cells, platelets, and plasma, in their live state, looking for patterns and abnormalities that may indicate imbalances or deficiencies according to Holistic Fertility Group."
I know a person who does this, she always comes back saying she has parasites in her blood and needs to cleanse. Is she did have parasites she would be very sick, but she just doesn't get it...
#15
Pretty much anything related to “race” as a scientific idea rather than a social construct.
Racial definitions are based on pseudoscience and a few visible phenotypes but don’t really correlated with anything scientific.
Remi (He/Him) 3 months ago
There are a few things that correlate to skin color. 1. The amount of vitamin d you get from sunlight is lower, the darker the skin, 2. Pulse oximeters give higher oxygen saturation numbers to darker skinned people, but that's because of the way the machines are built, 3. Gingers need more meds for the same effect for example when numbing a tooth etc, but they're just things to remember in a medical setting
#19
Had a actual nurse practitioner tell me ear wax candles work.... Nope.
DennyS (denzoren) 3 months ago
I always wondered about these, cause it never made sense logically.
#20
A lot of the hype around vitamins. Many if not most are unneeded for the majority of people and don't get absorbed anyway.
Alexia 3 months ago (edited)
Most of them are synthetic. However, if it turns out that you have a certain deficiency (following lab tests), and the deficiency is serious and related to a health condition, your doctor may suggest vitamins, in addition to a proper diet. But don't just take vitamins randomly, just because some influencers or commercials promote them aggressively.
#21
Those personality assessment test HR ask you to take during the recruitment process.
Tim Gearing 3 months ago (edited)
It got me into my 35yo career in ATC… and probably accounted for 2 failed marriages.
#22
Getting wet in the rain will make you sick. One does not “catch a cold” while outside in the rain.
JB 3 months ago (edited)
If you think about the historical context this folk wisdom came from, I think there might actually be some truth in this. Before antibiotics, vaccines, and improved nutrition, people got sick a lot more. If your body is fighting off something at pretty much any given moment, the drop in temperature from being wet for a while might be just enough to give something a toehold and get you sick. We still actually teach this folk wisdom in survival schools when they say wet=dead, so while I don't believe it is true in the modern context, I think it was true in the past.
#23
Love languages. These were created by a Christian couple "therapist" who encouraged abused women to stay with their husbands. These "languages" have no real scientific value; they're inconsistent when applied to a person/couple, and are generally just things you normally see in any couple.
(Edited for clarity).
RoRoRomantasy 3 months ago
No scientific value, sure. But they are actually helpful sometimes because being able to say "___ makes me feel loved" or something like that means your partner can do that for you? For example, I need assurance a lot and one of my "love languages" is words of affirmation. It helps me a lot to be able to say that and many of my relationships are better because of it.
#24
Fire cutters. It’s a wild thing some people I know in France genuinely swear by. It’s where your doctor sends essentially magic, even over the phone, to heal ailments and pain.
It floors me how much they believe it!
#25
Anything Freudian. I find it alarming that his theories are given the time of day at all. It seems like unfalsifiable bunkum to me.
Becca not Becky 3 months ago
Freud himself though was one of the first to really consider how trauma affects development. Even though his specific stages have been deemed unscientific, he laid the groundwork for understanding PTSD and longterm effects of SA.
#26
The argument that circumcision is "cleaner".
Would your eyeballs be cleaner if you cut off the lids?
Would your v****a be cleaner if you cut off the labia?
웅장한 거북이 🇰🇷🇰🇭 3 months ago
Just the fact that you relate the function of your eyeballs with a gland shows how stupid thst "fact" is. Stop cutting your fingernails then, that is about the same by that logic. I think it should be up to men if they do it or not. No need to fabricate a "fact" for it
#27
“Introverts” and “extroverts” as distinct fixed personality types.
Mel in Georgia 3 months ago (edited)
Kinda? Of course it's on a scale, but ever since I was a little kid, too much stimulation, especially with people, would exhaust me. For my husband? Too little interaction with people makes him want to go do errands. For him, "hanging out" with people is great. For me it's mild t0rtue. There's something to the terms.
#28
Divining rods. I'm a geologist, and I still must work with other "educated scientists" who think they can locate water or underground utilities with divining rods.
Sandy Jones 3 months ago
The reason divining rods work in finding water, because water is everywhere underground.
#29
BMI as a measure of health.
the creator of what is now known as bmi wasn’t even a medical professional (he was a statistician and astronomer).
#30
The taste 'map' of the tongue.
Scarlett O'Hara's Ghost 3 months ago
Not a scam or pseudoscience!!!! This was taught to a young generation x because at that time they thought it was fact. Right after learning that the very tip of my tongue is where you taste sweet, my second grade teacher passed out pictures of brontosaurus for us to connect the dots and color!
#31
Criminal profilers/behaviorists. There is an amount of genuine psychology involved. But there tends to also be *a lot* of assumption-making and speculation that has dubious accuracy.
#32
"boosting" the immune system - it can't be boosted, you can support it to help fight infection, but you can't send it into hyperdrive, that would cause autoimmune issues.
#33
Women are better multitaskers than men. The truth is that true multitasking is extremely difficult, and very few people can do it effectively. Everyone else just switches between tasks, and will perform poorly regardless of gender.
Dowsing. I've been surprised by the amount of people that think this is a real thing. At best people can use their experience to find water/oil/whatever where it's expected to be, but will score no better than chance in a controlled setting.
Reiki, acupuncture, chiropractic, naturopathy and any other alternative medicine that relies on undefined "energy" or "wellness". They can make you feel good, but the placebo effect is a well known phenomenon. At best it doesn't cause harm and brings relief at an often steep financial cost, and at worst some of these fields have k**led people.
Mel in Georgia 3 months ago
There is a kind of multi-tasking that I do that my husband can't seem to do. Like ... food is cooking, instead of looking at it and stirring it occasionally, why not put kitchen things away? Talking on the phone? Wipe the counters! Going to the bedroom? Take some laundry! Women do this stuff all the time. (Huge generalization) men seem more singularly focused.
#34
Sunrise alarm clocks.
It *seems* like they should work. They're so prolific that you think they must work. So I was surprised when my sleep therapist said they were a waste of money.
There aren't any papers that show that sunrise alarm clocks--even those that best mimic the sun--have any effect on sleep and circadian rhythms. The one study that suggested they might help also included limiting nightime screen exposure, which we know is effective. There are a few studies that look at SAD, but they're small and poorly executed.
Uncle Panda 3 months ago
Sunrise alarm clocks don't work for me because I'm buried under the covers with a breathing tube (so the monsters can't get me).
#35
IQ tests. It only predicts if you’re gonna be good in school, not intelligence. .
#36
Evolutionary psychology / evopsych. Yet the manosphere runs with it.
Having studied psych for many years, the TLDR of why that is: there's no fossils of behaviour.
#37
"Organic" food being better for you. There's no difference in GMO plants nutritionally and wild plants of the same species. Even if both similar plants were never GMO, the only difference is how they were raised. The same goes for meat. They do not change nutritionally.
Mel in Georgia 3 months ago
Organic does not necessarily mean non-GMO. Organic typically means not grown using pesticides or non-natural fertilizers. GMO plants can be raised organically. GMO means the plants were genetically modified to be better at something - more drought tolerant, more flavorful, staying fresh longer, etc. They can even be modified to be more nutritional. This post is stupid.
#39
The way fingerprints are used in many, if not most policing and judicial systems.
'Body Language Experts' used in policing and judicial systems.
Polygraphs.
A *lot* of things that are used to convict people of crimes range from badly implemented to complete horseshit.
(Bonus: Evolutionary Psychology).
#40
That hard food cleans teeth of our pets. This is a myth.
Dog Mom to Zoe 3 months ago
I heard a veterinarian on the radio saying that if you hit yourself with a dog treat and it hurts, don't give it to your dog.
#41
Quantum reiki. i trained with one of the foremost practicioners named antojai and it is not a transferable skill in my case.
Luke Branwen 3 months ago
Why do all those modern trends sound like names of Digimon attack techniques? I mean... "Quantum Reiki!" "Labubu Doll!" "Balenciaga Shoes!" "Skibidi Sigma!"
#42
The idea that everyone has a unique fingerprint is an assumption. It’s probably true, but science has never confirmed it.
#43
Forensic science. A lot of it isn't actual peer reviewed science as much as cops and "experts" making s**t up and then it getting taught to other departments.
Bite mark analysis, hair strand analysis, body language analysis, lie detector tests & "recovered memory" hypnosis stuff have been pretty consistently misused by the legal system.
Then there's even more stuff that has very specific useful applications but is abused by people who aren't qualified or have ulterior motives.
#46
Acupuncture. It’s sticking b******t needles in b******t places by b******t people. Double blinded tests (yes double!) proves it does not matter where you stick them or even if you stick them at all.
Sally Moen 3 months ago
It helped me deal with jaw pain from teeth issues. My jaw hurt so much for months but I didn't want to take painkillers. I tried acupuncture and the first session helped me. I went every month for several months until I had the teeth problem fixed. Weirdest part was looking down at my body when the needles were there. They don't hurt but its strange. The doctor, and she was medically trained, never gave me herbs nor special aromatherapy nor massage, just these thin needles in certain places that somehow blocked pain for me
#47
Bite forensics, ballistic forensics, blood spatter analysis. All of it is subjective b******t. It’s not scientific.
Alexia 3 months ago
I'm sorry but the definitions, description, methods of these forensics disciplines don't involve subjective guessing or opinions. There are not infallible, yes. But they are accepted as evidence in trials. For example, ballistic evidence helped identifying the type of guns and ammunition used in a m******e some decades ago. And guess what - it led to identifying the criminals.
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