16 Myths That Turned Out To Be Totally False

There are certain old adages that people swear up down and backward by even though they are not, were not, and have been proven to be not true.

So what’s an intelligent person to do when people around you think the earth is still flat? u/Jimbo_Jigs did us all a solid by starting a Reddit thread about all the dumb hoaxes that have been proven untrue but are still believed. Let’s make sure we don’t believe any of these, mkay?

1. Popped knuckles

That cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis.

SnooCompliments9257

Wrong! There was, in fact, a doctor who popped his knuckles in just one hand and did not develop arthritis.

2. Grays

If you pull out a grey hair three more grow in its place, my sister still believes this one.

GoopySpaff

3. Braiiiins

We only use 10% or our brain.

wiggywithit

4. Any baby animal

Touching a baby bird will make its parents reject it.

JustMeerkats

5. Spiders

That you swallow 8 spiders a year in your sleep.

rentinghappiness

6. Shaving

Shaving making hair grow in thicker.

offbrandbarbie

7. Dogs

That dogs’ mouths are cleaner than humans!

Mental_Investigator3

8. Lies!

It’s illegal to keep the light on in the car while driving.

rerhodes770

9. Your candy is safe

People putting needles or poison in Halloween candy.

Freeiheit

10. Blood

Blood in your veins is blue and red in your arteries. Literally every elementary school teacher I had kept this lie going.

XLPH725

11. Detoxing

Detox. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. What do you think your liver and kidneys are doing all day? If they weren’t working you would be on a form of detox called dialysis.

TheRealestDill

12. Brains

That people are “right” or “left” brain thinkers and that it has any bearing on her personality and level of logic or creativity.

Aminilaina

13. Wolves

Wolf hierarchy with alpha on top and omega at the bottom

ThatOneWhoSparkles

The author of the original paper has been on a thirty-year crusade to make people forget he ever wrote it. The following year he published a correction. Essentially, he’d been following a single pack of recently released (into Yellowstone) wolves and observed their behavior. When he redid the study, he followed multiple packs, both new and legacy, and realized that the pack structure basically followed the family structure.

TL;DR: Original author redid the study and realized there were no “alphas”, just parents.

Casual-Notice

14. Crypto

Majority of the suckers often either continue to hold their investments; that was worth less than dirt, or go on to invest in yet another scam.

bozimthecalm

15. MSG

That MSG is bad for you.

I meet people regularly that think it’s a super insta-cancer ingredient that will cause you to die or something based on 80s/90s false scares. Then I tell them “you do know it naturally occurs on tomatoes, yes?”

valdier

* Unless you have migraines. Woof, does MSG do a number!

16. This persistent, stupid BS

That vaccines cause autism.

henrirousseau