The fingers on my two hands wouldn’t be enough to count how many times I’ve heard that Einstein was bad at school math. Or that bulls go into full-on rage mode when they see red.
Turns out, many of those are just urban myths disguised as common knowledge. So what other nonsense do we, my fellow human beings, all blatantly believe in? This thread on r/AskReddit may give us some answers as people share some of the most annoying myths we all are guilty of trusting in.
Have any annoying myth on your mind to add to this list? Hit us in the comment below!
#1
That certain animal ‘parts’ have healing/magical properties. Like tiger whiskers protect the wearer or rhino horn cures impotence and hangovers.
Image source: storm_in_a_teapot, Dave Stokes
#2
That vaccines cause autism, are made by the government to control you etc etc.
Image source: Bona-fide1, Gustavo Fring
#3
That gold fish can life in small fish bowls. Worst possible thing to do to them. They die so quickly because they are messy fish and ultimate swimming in toxic water. The need twice the water a regular fish needs to dilute the ammonia their food and waste create. Goldfish can grow up to 12-14 inches and live 10-15 years in a proper habitat! Just because your parents’ parent did this or you see them at the fair doesn’t mean it’s right. Same goes for most animals kept in small cages/tanks. If you aren’t going to do it right, then you should not own that pet. Do your research. End rant ha
Image source: icpainsme, lina smith
#4
Not sure if this fits here exactly, but the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit being a frivolous case filed by a money hungry customer. That poor lady was a real victim who suffered legitimate injuries who only wanted her medical costs covered.
Image source: Jed1M1ndTr1ck, Wikimedia Commons
#5
Poor people are poor because they don’t know how to manage their money
Image source: phoooooenix, Chronomarchie
#6
That the customer is always right.
Image source: Pantominist, Lisa
#7
You can “detox” your body from toxins and parasites by drinking certain teas or taking some weird medication.
Repeated diarrhea and frequent urination doesn’t indicate toxins leaving your body, your liver and kidneys do the job. If your liver is not functioning or you have a kidney disorder, obviously you need help but it won’t be teas that someone on Instagram is boasting about.
Image source: bitterherpes, Andy Melton
#8
Many people still believe hymens are like plastic food seals that cover up the hole and get popped when you have sex for the first time, and if a girl doesn’t bleed she’s not a virgin.
Image source: Vixrotre, Cassidy Dickens
#9
Fish only have a 5 second memory. My fish are fed automatically on a timer and they know dinner time better than my goddamn cat.
#10
That violence in the world is getting worse and worse. Actually, in relation to the world’s population we live in the most non-violent era in history. The problem is that, while 500 years ago you might have not even heard all the news from within your city, we can now hear all the horrible news from all over the world (and we’re also more people). But still, human interaction and conflict in general is much less violent than it used to be.
Image source: mediocre_medstudent1, Lindsey Turner
#11
That historically, corsets were extremely dangerous. That is false. “Tightlacing”, which is basically just what’s seen in the movies, where they make the corset as tight as they can, was not very common, and only used in the extremely upper class. Most people wore corsets completely safely, lacing down very little, if at all. Women climbed mountains, biked, did sports, and everything, in corsets.
Image source: icee5728, Stephanie Lawton
#12
That if you touch a baby bird, its mother will abandon it because of the smell. Birds actually have a very bad sense of smell.
Image source: grmidnight, Susanne Nilsson
#13
That woman can hold their period like we can hold our pee. I am still pissed at that teacher…
Image source: Alysa-kins
#14
A lot of commonly believed stuff about the female reproductive system/anatomy, like vaginas getting loose if a woman has a lot of sex, or that having a lot of sex somehow drastically changes the look of a woman’s labia.
Image source: iswearimalady
#15
People with OCD just repeatedly wash their hands and like things clean and organized. This is how it presents in some people. There is so much more to this mental illness that people aren’t aware of that lead to people not getting diagnosed or help.
Image source: Oss251817, Catt Liu
#16
Flushable wipes are flushable
Image source: RadRhys2, Wikimedia Commons
#17
You swallow 8 spiders a year in your sleep. The thing was created to see how easily fake news spread.
Image source: JustAnAverageBrit, Jim, the Photographer
#18
Astrology: that your horoscope tells something about your personality
Image source: Metamorphosed_, MiraCosic
#19
The five second rule.
Image source: Appropriate-Wrap-664, The Creative Exchange
#20
You have to wait 24 hours before filing a missing person’s report.
Image source: popthetab, Skybluesrich
#21
I have a black cat with white spots on her belly and people have made comments about never having a black cat because they are bad luck or evil. Dude, it’s a cat. Also, hear often comments regarding not breaking mirrors or sweeping over someone’s feet. Its 2021 we really still believe this?!
Image source: raj_100
#22
That dairy cows just “make” milk.
Cows aren’t any different than the rest of the mammals. They make milk when they have a baby. Humans just take the baby away after it’s born.
Image source: the_V0lum3, Matt
#23
That carrots improve eyesight. It was actually British propaganda from World war II, I think to explain how they kept on shooting down German planes at night, in order to conceal their invention of a new type of radar I believe. More funny than annoying, I just want to say it.
Image source: SirGideonthe3rd, Open Grid Scheduler
#24
The Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure visible from space. First of all, it’s not, and second, other ones are.
Image source: Plug_5, Wikimedia.Commons
#25
Organic means no pesticides used. As I understand it, it means that no synthetic pesticides were used.
Image source: Lulubean16, Wikimedia Commons
#26
Not a myth per se, but the number of people who grossly misunderstand how evolution and natural selection works is crazy high.
Image source: supremedalek925, Wikimedia Commons
#27
Ostriches bury their head in the sand when confronted. The fact that Ostrich legs and claws are powerful enough to kill any predator makes a mockery of the myth. In actual fact, they don’t make nests but bury their eggs in warm soft soil. They then frequently turn the eggs over in the ground to stop them overheating giving the appearance that they are sticking their heads in the ground from a distance.
Image source: Bloverfish, Brian Snelson
#28
MSG – a lot of people still believe it’s basically poison. It’s no more harmful than regular salt.
Image source: ToothbrushGames, Ragesoss
#29
That margarine is “one molecule away” from being plastic.
Firstly, “one molecule away” makes no sense. It is a meaningless phrase.
Secondly, being “one atom away” is also meaningless, because a change in atomical structure means the substances are different.
A molecule of H2O has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. H2O is water.
H2O2 has two hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms. H2O2 is hydrogen peroxide.
But we don’t caution against drinking water by saying that it’s “one atom away” from being hydrogen peroxide, because that one atom completely changes the makeup of that substance. Water isn’t “almost” peroxide or vice versa.
This is an oversimplification, obviously, but suffice it to say that you shouldn’t take advice from someone who claims that margarine is “one molecule away” from being plastic. It’s a complete misnomer.
I don’t even like or eat margarine but this drives me up the freaking wall.
Image source: throwaway10231991
#30
Schizophrenia is the same thing as Multiple Personality Disorder
Image source: cipherable, Guilherme Rossi
#31
Scholars in the middle ages didn’t believe the Earth was flat. The ancient Greeks knew that [stuff] was false. The myth of the flat earth was a post-Romanticism fancy in pop culture, not a serious scholarly movement.
That line from Men In Black has pissed me off ever since I learned the truth.
Image source: BlueOysterCultist, Wikimedia Commons
#32
“We care about your privacy” AbsoluteBollocks™️
Image source: 221bFox
#33
That cutting your hair off makes it grow in thicker.
Image source: KingKombo, cottonbro
#34
We only use 10% of our brains. If you don’t know what 100% is, then how do you determine what 10% is.
Image source: mwmstern
#35
Cracking your knuckles makes them bigger/gives you arthritis.
This is an ongoing battle between myself and my older coworkers.
Image source: Deezus1229, Colin Davis
#36
Shark fins / shark products are great for health
Image source: palomsoms
#37
That historical armor was basically useless, only increasing the chance of maybe deflecting a blow if you were lucky. You still see it in movies, shows and games where a knife or sword or arrow will go through armor like it’s cardboard.
In reality armor was very useful. Very good armor, like a knight’s suit of plate, made the wearer virtually invincible. The best plate could stop even early firearms. A knight in full plate and wielding a shield was pretty much the tank of the medieval battlefield. Doubly so if on horseback. Specialized weapons and a concerted effort was needed to defeat one, although typically no one would try to kill a knight since you can’t ransom a corpse.
But even simple gambesons, which were made from layers of fabric, could resist a sword cut. High quality gambesons could resist all but the strongest cuts from specialized cutting swords.
Also: that swords were super heavy. A typical one-handed arming sword from the middle ages weighed around 3lbs, 4 max. A two-handed long sword could get up to 5lbs. Rapiers weighed around the same as other swords, which is contrary to popular belief.
Yes, swinging around a 3-4lb object would tire someone out, but the people doing so were generally more fit than the people reading this thread.
Image source: The_Fresno_Farter
#38
Bulls get angry when they see the color red. It’s not true..
Bulls are actually red-green colorblind. What actually triggers the bull’s anger is the movement in front of them.
Image source: Annu28
#39
If you lift your hands above your head while pregnant you will strangle the baby. I am sure it was started by smart women who didn’t want to do all the housework while pregnant and tired. I still hear it every now and again.
Image source: Letmetellyowhat
#40
People think bats are blind. They aren’t.
Image source: Bloodragedragon, Danny Ayers
#41
The highest tax rate means your entire income is taxed at that rate
Image source: Unleashtheducks
#42
That Napoleon was short. He was average height
Image source: AspectOfSociety, Wikimedia Commons
#43
that myth about how nasa invented ballpoint pens for space while the USSR just used pencils… basically completely untrue
Image source: NepetaLast, Andrew Magill
#44
That Vikings wore horns on their helmets.
Image source: AndyTheThiccer, Wikimedia Commons
#45
Undercover cops have to tell you they’re cops.
Image source: Lawgang94, Elvert Barnes
#46
Einstein was bad at school math.
Image source: el_juanjo, Wikimedia Commons
#47
That you can spot-reduce fat. Far too many quacks on the internet talking about “toning” and “melting belly fat” with a hundred sit-ups a day.
Image source: stonersouls_
#48
Black belts have to register their fists as weapons… I can’t believe I was dumb enough to fall for that.
Image source: d_tiBBAR, RODNAE
#49
Lightning never strikes the same place twice.
Image source: thebelsnickle1991, public domain
#50
History is filled with this stuff, but I’m gonna go with general misconceptions due to an inability to read history in context.
Often if you read a funny and strange story where you go ‘haha those dumb superstitious people in the past’ in reality there isn’t superstition behind it, there’s politics and power. For example, if you hear of someone being excommunicated and declared a witch / heretic for some odd reason the truth is the given reason is just a made up excuse, and the real reason is political intrigue.
Image source: Wvreb
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