Ever started worrying after swallowing gum and fearing it might remain in your stomach forever? Well, guess what? Most of this knowledge was implanted in us as kids to trick us into doing something or stop us from doing it. Alas, some people carry such myths their whole lives and share them with others, continuing this vicious cycle.
In the golden age of misinformation, it’s more important than ever to separate fact from fiction as it can divide, confuse people and even cause danger to health.
We are on a mission to debunk them and have gathered some of the most mind-boggling misconceptions from a few Reddit discussions (one and two) that people should seriously stop buying into.
#1
If you cut taxes to the wealthy, those savings will trickle down to the lowly workers and make them better off financially.
Image source: Fresh-Hedgehog1895, Nicola Barts
#2
The myth that if you’re a good person and work hard, you’ll get somewhere in life. It’s a flawed formula that doesn’t account for a myriad of variables.
Image source: Petrichor_Paradise, Sharan Pagadala
#3
Poor people are ONLY poor because they are ALL lazy and made bad decisions.
Image source: LucienPhenix, Jimmy Chan
#4
Money can’t buy happiness. It has been proven repeatedly that this is a lie! People who spout this nonsense are using money incorrectly! Pisses me off every time I heard it
Image source: Maleficent-Winter187, Towfiqu barbhuiya
#5
That a drink concoction can detox your body.
Image source: TuxandFlipper4eva, Mikhail Nilov
#6
The woman from the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit was frivolous and sue happy.
Image source: Wandering_Lights, GoToVan
#7
Vaccines cause autism.
Image source: Low-Positive9814, Gustavo Fring
#8
“We’re not a company, we’re a family”
Image source: wilfsland, Pavel Danilyuk
#9
That if a human handles a baby bird the mother will smell human on it and reject it. It’s an absolute myth. Birds don’t smell super well. I mean, don’t go around yoinking babies from their nests, but handling one at a time of need won’t be its death sentence.
Image source: Phoney_McRingring
#10
“Your call is very important to us”
Image source: protectourwater, Mikhail Nilov
#11
That diamonds are both rare and a girl’s best friend.
Image source: damian2000, The Glorious Studio
#12
The Alpha Wolf theory or whatever it’s called. Wolf packs are just families
Image source: AgentPastrana, Jennifer Feuchter
#13
The myth that nuclear power isn’t safe. It’s actually equal with solar as the safest form of power generation there is.
Pollution from coal power and other fossil fuels kills 2 or 3 times as many people as Chernobyl did *every single day*.
Image source: fractiousrhubarb, Pixabay
#14
Undercover police have to tell you they are policemen when you ask them.
Image source: Postraqw, Andrea Piacquadio
#15
That being cold will give you a cold.
Image source: OSeady, Brett Sayles
#16
Cutting hair makes it grow faster. Actually had an argument with a hairdresser about this. She insisted it was true but I said it wasn’t. Went looking for actual reasearch and found that hair is keratin and cutting it does not speed growth
Image source: ClevelandWomble, cottonbro studio
#17
Drinking a bunch of juice that’s high in Vitamin C prevents or cures colds and flus
Image source: llcucf80, Mikhail Nilov
#18
That eating foods containing fat will contribute to your body fat more than the same number of calories in the form of carbs.
Similarly, that eating eggs — which contain cholesterol— will raise your blood cholesterol.
S**t’s more complicated.
Image source: resurrectedlawman
#19
That “Flushable wipes” should actually be flushed.
Image source: rigmarole111, Kevin Jump
#20
You have to wailt 24 hrs to report a missing person.
Image source: footlettuce00, MART PRODUCTION
#21
Average humans only use 10% of their brain power.
Image source: knifetrader, cottonbro studio
#22
That cracking your knuckles will result in arthritis. Total b******t.
Image source: 1980pzx, Eren Li
#23
The idea that you should drink at least eight glasses of water a day to stay hydrated. I mean, come on, it’s just not backed by science. Drink enough to be hydrated but 8 glasses is not magic.
Image source: I_like_robots_3112, Adrienn
#24
The myth that Polygraphs, aka lie detectors, are accurate. Actual scientific assessments of the accuracy of polygraphs consistently shows little to no evidence that they are accurate despite their prevalence in use by law enforcement agencies for investigations and for security clearances. It can result in a lot of false positives, for example, of people being nervous about questioning and their physical stress being picked up as a lie by the person “analyzing” the output. (I’m using air quotes here since it’s one of those things where the analysis is more subjective than objective so is prone to human bias.)
Image source: bodyknock, Rex Roof
#25
Breakfast is the most important part of the day! This was nothing but a slogan created by Kellogg’s in the early 19th century!
Image source: SomePlaceElse__
#26
Napoleon’s short height was greatly exaggerated.
Image source: Heaven19922020
#27
Carrots improve your night vision.
This myth was created by the British Ministry of Defense in WWII. The British had a major technological advantage over the Germans: ground to air radar. This allowed the Brits to scramble fighters at night to intercept German bombers at an unprecedented rate during the Blitz. To hide this, the MOD invented the myth and circulated a bunch of b******t stories about how they feed their pilots a bunch of carrots and supplements made of carrot vitamins, which allowed the fighter pilots to see the german formations better.
Carrots are good for you, but they don’t do s**t for your eyes.
Image source: ErabuUmiHebi, MART PRODUCTION
#28
That washing chicken before cooking makes it safer.
Image source: Law-AC, Gabrielle Gatchalian
#29
That working out will be the key to losing the pounds. Weight loss happens in the kitchen. Exercise helps somewhat but will do nothing if caloric intake isn’t reduced.
Image source: apkcoffee, Tima Miroshnichenko
#30
That NASA paid millions for a pen that would write in space.
Image source: gamerbrian2023, Cpg100
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