90 Widely Known ‘Facts’ Debunked In This Viral Online Thread

Common myths and misconceptions are all around us. We might not even realize we're wrong until we're wrong. And… some facts aren't actually facts! [Dramatic gasp!] Reddit user Threedotsguy wanted to find out what widely known ‘facts' their fellow redditors know are wrong, and the educational thread went viral. Check out which myths got debunked, upvote the ones you didn't know were false, and share what other ‘facts' you know to be balderdash in the comments, dear Pandas.

Once you start going down the ‘how do I know anything for sure' rabbit hole, it's hard to stop. Before you know it, you might even end up as a philosopher with a PhD and a dozen published books about the theory of knowledge. But one thing that we really have to ask ourselves is why people tend to believe far-fetched facts, flimsy myths, and fake news.

Dr. Bobby Hoffman, psychologist and author of 'Hack Your Motivation' and 'Motivation for Learning and Performance,' explained to Bored Panda the effects that social pressure and peer influence have on our beliefs, what biases we as human beings tend to have, and what we can do to change our existing (potentially flawed) conceptions about the world. Read on for our full interview with Dr. Hoffman.

#1

Napoleon wasn't small. He was just the victim of good propaganda by the eventual winners.

Image credits: TheNameIsPippen

#2

I always see those 'pro tips' that say you should know your blood type in case of an emergency, so the hospital can get you the right type. This is 100% incorrect. We NEVER take the blood type a person says they are. A patient remembering incorrectly = a dead patient, and the hospital gets sued. We ALWAYS perform a blood test first. The only exception is in a true emergency, and then we only give O negative blood.

Image credits: turnipforwhales

#3

That the Great Wall of China can be seen from space.

Image credits: littlemissgullibell

Dr. Hoffman said that peer influence and social pressure are instrumental in the beliefs that we hold onto.

"For the most part, social media is a perfect outlet to commiserate with your peer group and gain acceptance for your beliefs, justified or not. Research shows the proclivity for us to participate with higher frequency with those people and outlets that support our belief structures. This phenomenon applies to a range of beliefs including politics, epistemology, and those requiring social proof (e.g., product reviews)."

He stressed that objectively evaluating our belief structures is almost impossible because of confirmation and myside biases.

#4

Schizophrenia has nothing to do with a split personality.

Image credits: Andy_Brennan

#5

That claim that we only use 10% of our brains.

Image credits: Aloise500

#6

That medieval/ancient people only lived to be ~32 years old, and at that age, they were considered ancient. That estimate is an average, which means it accounts for high infant/child mortality. Lots of ancient people lived to their 80s and older. If you made it to 30, chances were good you would make it another 30+ years.

Image credits: Hadrian_x_Antinous

"Confirmation bias means we seek out confirming evidence while rejecting or discounting evidence that refutes our belief structures. Chinn and Brewer (1993) outlined seven ways we respond to anomalous data that include: (a) ignore the anomalous data, (b) reject the data, (c) exclude the data from the domain of theory A, (d) hold the data in abeyance, (e) reinterpret the data while retaining theory A, (f) reinterpret the data and make peripheral changes to theory A, and (g) accept the data and change theory A, possibly in favor of theory B."

In brief, human beings selectively filter information that supports our intentions. Meanwhile, myside bias is similar to confirmation bias and makes it difficult for us to accept alternatives to our own attitudes and opinions.

"Myside bias operates similarly as we believe that our knowledge, process, and worldviews are superior in quality and accuracy than those views we do not hold. This explains the phenomenon of driving that I often use to operationalize myside bias. The person traveling at a greater speed than you is a 'jerk.' The person driving slower than you is an 'idiot.' Only your speed is the correct speed according to your views. However, what are other people thinking about your driving patterns?"

#7

That you swallow eight spiders a year in your sleep.

Image credits: t65turbo

#8

That if you swallow gum, it stays in your stomach for seven years. Not true. Your body processes it, and you poop it out just like anything else.

Image credits: Lorraine367

#9

Gladiators did not kill each other the sport was much more civil and it even had a referee

Image credits: Botany102

Dr. Hoffman suggests that in order to change our current conceptions about the world, we have to have compelling reasons to change. "Without a reason, we continue to harbor beliefs that may not be justified. In other words, for most issues there is no need for belief revision, especially when the warped beliefs endure us to our peer group."

The American Psychological Association states that fake news spreads more quickly than real news and reaches more people than the truth.

“Fake news has important implications in politics, but also in areas such as health and nutrition, climate science, and financial information,” MIT professor David Rand pointed out the dangers of believing unreliable information.

#10

Only old people die from COVID-19.

Image credits: Jek_Porkinz

#11

That hair and nails continue to grow after you die.

Image credits: Der_genealogist

#12

Goldfish do not really have a memory span of five seconds. They actually remember things for months, recognize their owners, and are able to distinguish them from other people.

Image credits: type3civilization

Rand proposes that the reason people might believe false facts has less to do with our internal biases and more with the way we think. Or rather don't think. According to him, people who tend to believe false information are actually individuals who don't think carefully. Or, in other words, we get duped by falsehoods because we rely on ‘lazy' thinking and make assumptions we don't even know are assumptions.

There is such a vast amount of information flooding our day to day lives that it's a chore to separate fact from fiction. While the internet might be a blessing, it's also a curse because what's popular on Google or social media might not be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 

However, there is a way around this issue. BBC Future writes that randomly exposing people to a whole range of views keeps challenging their beliefs and helps them create a much more detailed understanding of events. One that's much closer to the truth. And further away from myth.

#13

Frankenstein isn't the name of the monster. It's the name of the Doctor who created the monster. But I saw this great comment on a Youtube video - 'knowledge is knowing Frankenstein isn't the monster. wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein is the monster.'

Image credits: BoredForever1

#14

That 'if you touch a baby bird, the parents will abandon/kill it.' In reality, most birds don't do that. If you help a baby bird back into its nest, as long as you try not to touch the nest a lot, then everything should be fine.

Image credits: everythingbuttstuff

#15

That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing in the USA. There is no law about waiting, you don’t have to. Push to make the police cooperate and list the person missing immediately when you suspect something isn’t right. Don’t lose precious time; it’s extremely important if the person truly is missing.

Image credits: taako-tuesday

#16

That cracking your knuckles too often will cause arthritis.

Image credits: quietmouthloudmind

#17

People didn’t think the Earth was flat 500 years ago. It was theorized to be round in the 5th century BC. The Americas were just not known yet (except to Indigenous Americans) and it was believed that there was a vast ocean between Europe and Asia. People believed Colombus’ voyage would fail because he would exhaust his food and supplies before crossing it.

Image credits: WolfeS93

#18

Slaves built the pyramids.

Image credits: Apellosine

#19

That humans are the only animals that have self-awareness.

Image credits: LeonardJPickard

#20

The idea that chloroform quickly knocks you out. In the real world, it takes several minutes to knock you out, not the seconds you see in TV and movies.

Image credits: socksinsandalsinsnow

#21

That if you have a cold, you should get lots of Vitamin C. This is completely down to one scientist named Linus Pauling who had a theory that massive doses of Vitamin C would cure colds. Subsequent studies have shown he was wrong and any benefits are minimal at best. Yet I still get everyone telling me to drink orange juice whenever I get a sniffle.

Image credits: robson_bobson

#22

That carrots help with your eyesight. It was propaganda by the Allies in WWII to hide the fact that they had radar.

Image credits: Killzark

#23

That Hitler was vegetarian. He wasn't, it was propaganda spread to make him seem a more compassionate person.

Image credits: purplepikachu890

#24

That you have to buy new razor blades every week or 2. Razors dont dull because use, they dull because they rust, if you thoroughly dry them or oil them they can last for almost a year and still work just fine. This is coming from a bald guy who shaves his head every other day.

Image credits: ebee500

#25

That women get much less infertile after 35.

This was based off a study in the 1700s and doctors have been agreeing with it since. To clarify, they do become twice as likely to to become infertile but it changes from being 0.5% to 1% unlikely.

#26

Camels don't carry water in their humps. They contain fat as an emergency food supply.

#27

That milk "does a body good". Most ppl are lactose intolerant esp African Americans. Milk has always been highly inflammatory to me even as a child.

Image credits: Idotenyin

#28

The idea that there are 'left-brained' and 'right-brained' people who are either more artistic or more numbers-based. So inaccurate.

Image credits: neighboractually

#29

That Einstein failed math/was otherwise a poor student.

#30

That you should rinse with water as soon as you finish brushing your teeth ! My dentist told me that you actually should only spit out the raw excess once you are done brushing, but keep the rest inside to let time for the toothpaste to have its effect. Also, don't drink nor eat anything for 30 mins after you are done brushing ; Also, flossing should be done BEFORE brushing

#31

We're also not "descended" from chimps or gorillas or other living great apes. Instead, we share a common ancestor. Or, to put it another way, we are distant cousins to the other extant great apes, not great great great x5000 grandkids.

#32

The blue part of the eraser can erase pen ink.

#33

Homework is complete bulls**t and it's killing our brains. Just take a look at Finland's education system. The students there go to school for what? 3 or 4 hours a day, rarely have homework, and they have one of the best education systems.

#34

Sugar does not make you hyper. There is no such thing as a "sugar high." Kids going bonkers after having a big slice of cake can be explained very easily: They're in a situation where they're already excited (like a birthday party), they're overjoyed because they just got to eat a big slice of cake, and/or you've told them they'll go crazy if they eat all that cake and now it's just a self-fulfilling prophecy.

#35

Eating too many chocolates gives you diabetes.

No sugar consumption will not directly cause diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is caused due to you own immune cells destroying your insulin producing cells in pancreas. Type 2 is due to resistance of your cell to insulin. If your diet is not balanced (you only eat high calorie sugary foods), you don't exercise and you end up getting obese you risk getting diabetes.

#36

You should drink 8 glasses of water a day.

The origin of this is not agreed upon but a lot of this liquid can come from what’s already in food. It also depends on physical activity, heat, body size, etc. There is no perfect amount. If you’re thirsty, drink water until you’re not thirsty anymore. That’s it.

#37

The British have worse teeth than Americans.



Brits have fewer missing teeth on average, and the DMFT index is 0.8 for Brits but higher at 1.2 for the United States.

There are cultural differences, with natural teeth colour being considered natural in the UK, but unnatural in the USA where flourescent white is considered correct.

#38

That working 8+ hours a day, 5 days a week with 2 weeks yearly vacation is normal.

#39

"Eat your vitamin supplements they keep you healthy" Your body actually removes a lot of the vitamins in those supplements through urine

#40

The spainish flu wasn't actually from spain, it's just that at the time of it happening all around the globe spain was the first to report that the flu was passing around.

#41

Punishing your kids will make them respect you

Fear and respect are 2 VERY different things

#42

It's not 'Luke, I am your father,' but 'No, I am your father.'

#43

That you have to put something in the mouth of a seizing person so they don't swallow their own tongue. DO NOT DO THIS. EVER.

#44

That different parts of your tongue taste different things, such as sour, sweet, and bitter.

#45

‘NASA spent $$$$ inventing a pen that worked in space and the Russians used pencils.’

Total bollocks.

The Fisher Pen Company was independent and developed its ‘space pen’ with zero investment from NASA.

American astronauts began using mechanical pencils in space. Tiny fragments of graphite, and graphite dust floating around the spacecraft was not ideal because graphite is conductive. It’s also combustible, so everyone was keen to find an alternative.

Fisher patented its first ‘zero gravity’ pen in 1965, and in 1967 NASA began using it. By 1969 Russia were also buying them for their space missions.

Reportedly both NASA and The Soviet Space Company received the same discount for their bulk purchases.

#46

That the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit was absurd and unjustified. That coffee wasn't just hot, it was HOT -- spilling it in her lap, which should've just ruined Stella Liebeck's pants and maybe given her first-degree burns, caused THIRD-degree burns and fused her genitals shut. She needed not only skin grafts but horrifyingly painful, expensive reconstructive surgery.

When Liebeck initially contacted McDonald's, all she asked was that they cover her $20,000 hospital bills. They counter-offered for $800, so she took them to court. Even then, she didn't ask for punitive damages. The jury heard about McD's insulting counter-offer, and the fact that their coffee had seriously burned seven hundred people already (they damn well knew about the danger, they just didn't care), and were so incensed that they added the extra millions on their own.

The only reason people think of that case as an example of sue-happy American culture gone wrong is that McDonald's poured millions into a smear campaign after the fact. If you ask me, it was actually our justice system working exactly as it should.

#47

Cutting your hair makes it grow faster.

#48

When you have a nose bleed you should put your head forward, not backwards, otherwise the blood runs down your throat and can choke you

#49

That Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are somehow bad or dangerous

#50

Killers whales are whales.

They are actually dolphins!

#51

If you split earth worms in half both halfs will still be alive

#52

Dinosaurs and early humans co-existed. The truth is that they missed each other by over 60 million years.

#53

Everything you know about Attila the Hun.

Attila the Hun was actually a super honorable, extremely well educated guy who spoke multiple languages, was said to be a child genius who excelled at war strategies, and as a leader always put his people first. He was known to go without status symbols and such because he believed that as a leader every one of his people should have them first, because it was his job to take care of them. He also spent a lot of his formative years in Rome in a sort of prince exchange created to make sure everyone got along. When the Roman Empire was falling, the Pope himself came to him and begged him to leave them alone. The Pope said that the empire would fall if he didn't. Attila wasn't Christian, and was definitely winning the war with way less men and resources because he was so intelligent. Even still he felt badly for them and recognized how big a deal it was for the Romans to send the Pope, so he agreed to end the war. He could have easily killed the Pope and continued to destroy the Roman Empire, but he was far too honorable and kind hearted.

But we only hear the Roman Propaganda...

Attila is and will always be one of the most amazing leaders in history!

#54

Dogs have clean mouths. False! They have bacteria just like everyone else.

#55

Your head does not lose more heat than the rest of your body. It’s about the same.

#56

That daddy long-legs are the most venomous spider in the world — they just can't bite you.

#57

That the human body only has five senses. [In reality, there are way more.]

#58

The myth that glass is actually an extremely viscous, slow-flowing liquid, and that's why old windows are thicker on the bottom. No, it isn't. It's very clearly a solid. It's a disordered, non-crystalline solid, but still solid. Old windows are thicker on the bottom because they were designed that way.

#59

Schrodinger's Cat means the exact opposite of the common knowledge / pop culture understanding.

He was not saying the was both alive and dead. He was trying to assert that superposition (in quantum theory) was absurd by creating an absurd conclusion: that because we cannot see the cat, it is therefore both alive and dead.

#60

Mister Rogers was a sniper in Vietnam

#61

That two blue eye people can’t have a brown eyed kid. They can. But it comes down to recessive blue Gene. Too complicated to go into it. But seeing the charts that are like 1+1 brown will make a 50/50 chance of blue or brown eye baby. 2 blues will only make a blue or a green etc. it ain’t true

#62

Fish don't feel pain, but plants do.

#63

The customer is always right

#64

People with mental illness are NOT, in fact, more likely to be violent than the rest of the population. They're actually slightly less so, but MUCH more likely to be the victims.

#65

Organic agriculture is good for the environment.....

.....it is in fact just as bad, and sometimes worse than conventional farming.

#66

Bulls are not enraged by the colour red.

#67

That you need to eat animals to live

#68

Bananas actually do not grow on trees.

Instead, they are an herb that grows on 'bushes' which, due to their appearance, are often mistaken for trees. Neat, huh?

#69

Astronomer here! People always say Jupiter protects us from getting hit by asteroids because its larger gravitational pull attracts them (I believe it was on a certain popular astronomy show). In fact, this does not appear to be the case. See, while Jupiter does indeed interact with more things, it is both good and bad- some things hit Jupiter or get flung away, some things get flung directly at Earth that otherwise wouldn’t. Most famously, in 1770 Lexell’s comet passed closer to Earth than any other comet ever observed, missing us by just 6 Earth-moon widths. Turns out Jupiter flung it straight at us right before that. So yeah we almost died thanks to Jupiter, and good and bad comes from having it as a neighbor.

#70

You don’t really have an allergy to monosodium glutamate

#71

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Oh my God aarrgghhhhhhh!

#72

that WW1 wasn't called WW1 before WW2

there are many "what is wrong with this sentence?" riddles about a sentence before WW2 calling WW1 WW1, which is supposed to be wrong since at that time it was widely called "the great war" and not WW1. however THERE WERE a few articles from that time that called the war WW1, as a prediction that this is just the start and other wars like this are on their way. it wasn't very common but there are evidences for it.

#73

Hitler was happy about pearl harbor!

Pepsi never had the 9th largest military

The US is by far not the freest or most democratic nation

#74

That you should let small wounds air in order to heal faster.

Keep the bandaid on there and save yourself the bacterial infection

#75

Despite what you think, the majority of theft... isn't treated as illegal. See, wage theft, where your company steals from you, is so common it adds up to being more than other forms of theft/ robbery combined in the United states per year.

#76

Serotonin is not the "happy chemical"

#77

That eating foods high in antioxidants will improve your health. Not true.

#78

How about if you sit too close to the TV you will go blind., or for that matter if you jack off to much you will go blind.; wait,, I think it was if you jack off too much you will grow hair on your palms.

#79

If you eat food you don’t have to wait 15 to 30 minutes before you go swimming

#80

That pencils were once lead. They were always graphite.

#81

Sugarcane grows faster on sand

#82

A duck's quack doesn't echo

#83

tourette syndorme isn't always exclusively swearing uncontrollably, it represents a wide range of ticks, both verbal, nob-verbal and physical. Every case is different.

#84

You shouldn't piss yourself when a stingray stings you, that only makes the pain worse.

#85

Blunderbusses have a flared muzzle to spread the shot. The truth is that it only acts as a funnel to make loading easier.

#86

Transatlantic Slavery did NOT start in 1619!!! It started at LEAST as early as 1527. In 1527 the Narvaez expedition from Spain left for the Gulf of Mexico. A hurricane (or bad storm) later all but 3 sailors and a slave were either killed or separated. One of the sailors survived, made it back to Spanish settlements, and wrote a letter to the King detailing this (including the adventures of the enslaved man Esteban).

There's also speculation that Columbus had African slaves with him in 1492 but placing it in the 1600s misses a LOT of important historical events that impacted the trajectory of the world.

#87

That semen gets stored in your balls. Thats wrong, its produced there. It gets stored outside your balls, in your epididymis, wich is right next and partly on your actual balls.

#88

Thomas Edison did not actually invent the lightbulb.

He just made a version that was inexpensive and more practical.

The original lightbulb was made using the contributions of many inventors such as Alessandro Volta, Humphrey Davy, Warren De La Rue and Joseph Swan.

The main reason why Edison’s version was so successful was because he was already known and he owned a large company.

#89

Adding oil to pasta in water doesn't help it not stick to the pan. It just prevents water from boiling over.

#90

The space shuttle Challenger didn't actually explode. It broke apart. The crew cabin was intact until it hit the water just over two minutes later.

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