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While some of the things we learn don't necessarily make us smarter, they can definitely arouse our desire to learn more. Or at least help us continue our stalling conversations. And Twitter account WTF Facts is dedicated to collecting and sharing these random tidbits of information. From celebrity lifestyle to international relations, the project covers a wide range of topics, which is probably the reason why its feed remains so fresh and interesting. Continue scrolling and check out some of the most popular tweets WTF Facts have ever released!

Knowing obscure facts isn't just fun. It's also good for our mental health. For example, experts say that playing trivia games can provide a dopamine rush much like gambling, but without the negative effects. 

Even if our trivia games differ, the benefits are there. Whether we're playing Trivial Pursuit at home or attending a pub trivia night, the basic premise remains the same: we experience the thrill of providing correct answers to questions about lesser-known facts.

"You get a rush or a neuroreward signal or a dopamine burst from winning,” John Kounios, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the doctoral program in applied cognitive and brain sciences at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, told Healthline. “I think whenever you’re challenged with a trivia question and you happen to know it, you get a rush. It’s sort of like gambling.”

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Kounios said the benefits can also be similar to those of playing a video game.

However, unlike gambling and even video games, Kounios said trivia is generally not a problematic habit.

“I don’t think there are any pitfalls,” he said. “Like anything else that’s fun, it takes up time.”

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Jonathan
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At least THIS story was true unlike that other couple that set up a public fundraiser page for a 'homeless' guy.

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RickN Paez
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I thought was THIS story. Checked the comments to see if it was. Guess I got it confused with another one.

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Ben Smith
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Proof that homeless people deserve respect same as any other person.

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Willow
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Everybody deserves kindness and what goes around comes around

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RoseTheMad
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is the kind of wholesome stuff we need these days. totally not in tears here. shhh. >.>

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CORLEONE
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This news made my day. You did the right think, sir!

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Vicky Z
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's why they say that when you do something good eventually life rewards you at some point!

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Ben_tenyson
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OGC.8e1d4fb48693da1f6ba83a6a1c28c418&pid=Api&rurl=https%3a%2f%2fmedia.giphy.com%2fmedia%2fvcNsKUQ07oPLy%2fgiphy.gif&ehk=QLy8LqAhsF33xDcNrN5PON0Uf02fFgJ4ma0QodeQ%2f1A%3d

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Gail Cloutier
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Honesty is a moving experience. Most people have morals and stick to them. Billy is one of those men. Thank you.

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Rich Ellis
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I glanced at the picture I thought the woman was Marjorie Greene. I am disgusted with myself. Not as disgusted as I am with Greene, but...

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Zella Haesche
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

touching - good to see good things happening because he did the right thing

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Donald Holder
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Great story and true but you got the facts wrong. He didn't find the ring on the street. Sarah Darling had taken off her ring and placed it in a hurry into her purse. Later while seeing the "old man asking for change, i just huridly reached into the bottom of my purse and scooped up whatever loose change might have accumulated". Not havimy given thought that she earlier placed her right there. It was till later a home and after hours of tasks that she noticed she wasn't wearing it. She's looked all over her usual places she takes it off having been unable to find it that she searched her brain to think what could possibly happened to it. That's when she remembers the old man, the loose change and not looking at what she handed him. Then the story pics up from there.

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Lynn Morello
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just because he is homeless, doesn't mean he is dishonest. Absolutely magnificent gesture on both parts.

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Sophia Graubart
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I saw a Dhar Mann video with the same plot and names, but I didn't know it had actually happened!

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Carmen
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So many people pass by these unfortunate humans, treating them like mere litter, unable to imagine what they must be feeling and thinking...

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A librarian from California, Sarah Kishler, loves trivia games and enjoys attending a monthly pub trivia night in which a team of librarians participates.

"Learning facts so that I can get better at trivia is definitely a passion of mine," she told Healthline. "Getting a question right is definitely very satisfying to me."

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Guido Pisano
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same in Italy... You're allowed to disobey an order that you think is illegal...

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Over the past decade or so, pub trivia nights that are popular in the United Kingdom appear to have grown in other parts of Europe and the United States.

Enthusiasts like Kishler enjoy getting to interact with people at these events, especially compared to electronic trivia games.

She has learned that doing well at these social trivia games gives her "a feeling of validation" and increases her self-esteem.

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River Webb
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

yeah Disney often adapts its stories to be appropriate for children, eventually leading everybody to only remember the Disney version and not the original

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"I love general knowledge, geography, literature, music, science trivia," Kishler explained. "I just love to accumulate knowledge. I like the exercise that it gives my brain and memory."

She doesn't think of herself as a competitive person but nevertheless enjoys getting a bit amped up at trivia games.

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“People really like to have some expertise on something and the brain is very good at focusing on things that you’re interested in,” Deborah Stokes, Ph.D., L.P.C., B.C.N., a psychologist in Virginia, who focuses on neurotherapy, told Healthline.

According to Stokes, learning large bodies of knowledge can often start with trivia. And people who are interested in trivia can be brainy, have a high IQ, and be smart on a lot of levels.

However, Kounios said that people aren’t necessarily better at trivia games just because they’re more educated.

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Láďa Durchánek
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can barely draw a stick figure and if instructions have more than one step it is safer to write them down.

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"Some people soak up facts,” Kounios added. "Plenty of people with a lot more education may not remember what they had for breakfast yesterday morning."

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"In typical people, my observation, not backed up by any research, is that their interest in trivia is confined to topics that they are generally interested in. So if a person is very interested in history, then they may either seek out history trivia, or they might just naturally pick it up in the course of learning about nontrivial aspects of history."

Stokes pointed out that trying to retain information about things we're interested in can be like a good exercise for the frontal cortex as the brain ages.

"That’s the first thing to go with injury or with age if we don’t use it," she said.

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Of course, it's completely understandable if the pandemic has drained your brain of the desire to learn and flooded it with boredom and tiredness instead. In an earlier Bored Panda interview, Lenore Skenazy, the president of Let Grow and the founder of the Free-Range-Kids movement, said that before we can become curious again, we have to do the hard part: get off the couch. Force yourself out the door. Why? Because beyond your four walls, things are never exactly the same. Weather, animals, people, sounds, smells, clouds—they’re all swirling about."

Lenore continued: "Ask yourself to start noticing new things. I did that this morning with a friend. We took a walk around our neighborhood and started looking for interesting details in the homes and buildings we passed. It went from a walk down streets we’d seen a million times to a sort of treasure hunt. And the big thing we were really hunting for? Curiosity! When you’re curious you’re alive again—noticing, thinking, making connections. You can’t do that if there’s no new information coming in. So your first step is to force yourself out of a rut by leaving the house (harder during the pandemic, but not impossible)."

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Michelle M
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Here's another fact. Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth were born in the same year.

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Bill
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Except 21 payouts and Non Disclosure agreements. No innocent person would pay out that many times

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QuokkaVibes
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As an Italian (but this is my personal belief, everyone is entitled to it's own) this is exactly something Mafia would do. It's something I know occurs in Italy on a daily basis. You see a quite common modus operandi is mobster would do something nice for the community or for specific people, so that the community in the area feels dependable. One well known method of recruiting in the mafia is: you have a problem, we send to you someone you know (and you don't know he works for us). Maybe a friend of a friend. He'll fix your problem for you. After time is passed this person asks for a little innocent thing like let's say "I'm sick can you bring this box to this adress? I can't move". After that he asks for more pressuring you on the favor he did awhile back and tells you that box you delivered was full of drugs/handguns so you're an accomplice. And that's it you're in a system you can't escape without hurting family and friends.

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Mary Rose Kent
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I assume that this photo is all of the lazy culprits and, of course, the one who actually did the deed

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Note: this post originally had 122 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.

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