Facts make the world go round. They keep us engaged, informed, entertained and can even help us feel a little more interesting or smarter when we’re forced to make small talk with strangers.
While some facts quench our thirst for knowledge like a glass of ice water on a hot day, others are like accidentally stepping on a piece of Lego and wishing we’d had the foresight to go the other way. They’re the ones you randomly come across by chance and immediately want to unlearn.
Someone recently asked, “Tell me the scariest fact you wish you didn’t know,” and people didn’t hold back. From realizations like the brain named itself and is studying itself, to the freaky thought that one day (if we haven’t already), we will unknowingly pose for the photograph that will be used at our funeral… These are just a few of the unsolicited facts people would rather not think about.
Bored Panda has put together a list of the best answers for anyone brave enough to explore the cold, hard facts of life that make some others want to run and hide. We’ve also included some info on how your brain filters out unwanted information. You’ll find that between the images.
#1
I just read a neuroscience article that said the brain holds on to negative comments for 20 years but compliments start to fade after 6 weeks.
Image source: ouiser13, Getty Images/unsplash
Did you hear or read something that you no longer want to know? Just remove it from your brain. Yes, apparently it’s as simple as that.
Researchers have recently revealed that people can consciously remove specific information from their memories by “dampening the brain circuits that initially stored it.”
Jiangang Shan and Bradley Postle, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are the experts behind the study, which looked at how the brain actively removes memory content it doesn’t need.
#2
Honestly the fact that the brain named itself and studies itself scares me.
van_shika_708:
Brain is the most important organ of our body according to the brain…
Image source: beyblade_rippz, Curated Lifestyle/unsplash
#3
“We are either alone in the universe or we’re not, both are equally terrifying.”
Image source: allisefountain, Mark de Jong/unsplash
Their paper, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, explains how they got 30 participants to perform a memory task while recording their brain activity. The group was first given two items to remember.
“Experimental conditions either did or did not encourage participants to actively remove the memory of one of these items. Following these conditions, they were given a third item to remember,” reports Neuroscience News. “Finally, participants were tested on their memory of the relevant first and final items.”
The researchers found that the brain uses a “mechanism” to consciously remove information from a memory. “Brain scans showed that removing memory content involves reduced excitability in the neural circuits tied to the unwanted information,” explains the site.
#4
Depression levels correlate with intelligence. So basically if you know too much you’re going to permanently struggle with depression because you can’t forget things.
Image source: goodbye_and_godspeed, Daniel Martinez/unsplash
#5
The human mind is so easily influenced, that you (or someone else) can create memories in your mind that never even existed.
Image source: adeliazollo05, Getty Images/unsplash
#6
The fact that worms live inside the body.
Image source: stella_the_lune, Tim Wilson/unsplash
#7
It takes light to travel from the sun to the earth in 8 minutes. That means if the sun exploded we wouldn’t know until 8 minutes later.
Image source: kaylaross564, Vivek Doshi/unsplash
#8
Around 85% of the universe’s mass is dark matter, and we have no clue what that is or what it’s made out of.
Image source: mickeynegus, Andy Holmes/unsplash
#9
The fact that manifestation and placebo effect is real, they’re proven with psychology and neuroscience. You actually have the power to shift realities just by thinking about it.
Image source: _user14657, Katerina May/unsplash
#10
In the 1980s, it was widely believed by medical professionals that babies could not feel pain, with medical procedures such as surgeries being regularly performed without anesthesia.
Image source: ericaelly, Olivier Gerbault/unsplash
#11
Our bodies constantly create cells with potential to become cancerous, and the immune system usually detects and eliminates them before they can form tumors. The first time I heard this, I was scared because what you mean every day is a potential day to have cancer.
Image source: goldiloxenigma, Getty Images/unsplash
#12
If we look back around 25 to 30 generations in our family tree, we start to all share common ancestors, meaning everyone one of us are very distantly related to each other.
Image source: steven.louive, Joshua Manjgo/unsplash
#13
Pseudocyesis, also known as a false or phantom pregnancy, where the body shows real pregnancy symptoms (like a growing belly, missed periods, morning sickness) but there’s no fetus. The brain is INSANE.
Image source: malenapeters, Getty Images/unsplash
#14
Prion diseases, like mad cow/rabies/brucellosis/chronic wasting disease, etc, can live dormant in your body for over 10 years depending on the disease. So you could be currently infected and you wouldn’t even know it. Not until you start showing symptoms… and there is no cure for any of them. It’s crazy cause we don’t have “absolutes” in medicine, but one of the only exceptions is that Prion diseases are 100% fatal..
Image source: max_beach626, Talha Hassan/unsplash
#15
There is no guarantee that everyone sees the same color.
Image source: himansthetic, Mika Baumeister/unsplash
#16
The fact that there is no purpose in existing itself.
Image source: seeker931207, Milles Studio/unsplash
#17
The Titanic sinking was in pitch black because there was no moon that night. It wasn’t like it was in the movie.
Image source: kaitlyn.slaymaker, Osarugue Igbinoba/unsplash
#18
One day you will unknowingly pose for the picture that will be used for your funeral.
Image source: _rishabh__mishra_
#19
The older you get, the more familiar you become with the passage of time, so it seems to move faster. Think how long a year or a summer seemed when you were a kid.
Image source: hanasaam888
#20
Some people don’t have an internal monologue & that’s so bizarre to me.
Image source: dahli.rose
#21
Black holes aren’t stationary. They can move in any direction.
Image source: louiemagnums
#22
The fact we know more about our Galaxy above us than about our Oceans.
Image source: re.bec.c.a
#23
The blind people can’t see a dream.
Image source: only.noor_007
#24
About 3% of kids aren’t raised by their biological father, that’s terrifying to me.
Image source: bill.7593, Toa Heftiba/unsplash
#25
For me it’s the dark history of brutal experimentation behind the medical knowledge and procedures we learn.
Image source: melisha.r, Navy Medicine/unsplash
#26
We can psychologically condition people to be scared of something or love something.
Image source: awesome_1929
#27
A cockroach can live without its head for weeks.
Image source: citystrollphotography
#28
History is nothing but someone’s pov we are manipulated into believing.
Image source: mushroomspizza, Giammarco Boscaro/unsplash
#29
Human perception. Everyone perceives things differently, interprets it differently, even what you think you see/perceive may not be real, it’s always distorted.
Image source: goth1cw1tch
#30
I once got CPR while fully conscious. I can’t even describe it. Did you ever hit that funny nerve in your elbow? Imagine that in your whole body and head+the pain and you feel like your neck is gonna burst open.
Image source: sister_tereza
#31
That everyone is doing struggle for the life that can be ended at any point and he doesn’t even know the time when it will happen.
Image source: fatimaasad1412
#32
While giving birth, women think to themselves they are never doing that again. However, their brain slowly forgets about that pain only bringing the desire to go through the process all over again.
Image source: reaganbaillie_11
#33
An item or feeling can be the peak of happiness one moment and absolutely nothing in an hour.
Image source: easycure72
#34
The more you know, the less you actually know.
Image source: luke.xavier5
#35
Crows can memorize your face.
Image source: julia_now_and_then
#36
The fact that when we’re looking at the stars, we are most likely looking at their past when in reality, theyre probably not there anymore because their light takes so long to reach us. This is kinda scary to think of.
Image source: nawaye_khizan1
#37
Humans can see light from ~380nm to 700nm. This is less than 1% of the existing light spectrum. We’re basically blind.
Image source: meep.beep.abbie
#38
You never see the present.
Your brain shows you the world about 80–100 milliseconds late so it can edit reality.
You are always living in the past, just enough to survive.
Image source: iman__ijaz
#39
We are not scared of being alone in the dark. We are scared of not being alone there.
Image source: is_eye.catcher_
#40
If you have PTSD (like me) you can pick up on bad people or bad vibes quicker then most and also can kind of like sense danger before it happens.
Image source: seaja_yare
#41
You cannot imagine a color you’ve never seen before.
Image source: tuhnishk
#42
The fact that if we try and put the whole story of the planet earth in one book, us humans would only appear at the very last page, and just a tiny little piece of bottom right corner.
Image source: stail_068
#43
Some serial offenders don’t feel fear or guilt at all, and their brains never light up where empathy should be.
Image source: serenalparsons13
#44
Early onset schizophrenia is a thing and can begin in childhood. It’s characterised by fatigue, forgetfulness and lack of motivation, so is often diagnosed as depression.
Image source: absolxte.sxccxb1tch
#45
Trillions of neutrinos are passing through our body every second right now from the Sun, distant supernovae, cosmic rays, and we can’t feel them, stop them or detect them in any way.
Image source: nathaliaromero19
#46
Ovarian cysts can grow hair and teeth, saw images on Google and I’m forever traumatized.
Image source: mira_me0_0
#47
Your skin is constantly shedding cells, turning pieces of you into dust without you ever noticing. It’s a slow, invisible process almost like Sandman dissolving into grains.
Every day, parts of you disappear… and are quietly replaced
Image source: kysinayat
#48
Isn’t it scary that we see memories in a third pov while it actually happens us to in first pov.
Image source: _vampirehollic_
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