Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Debunk Common Misconceptions Held By Society

People Debunk Common Misconceptions Held By Society
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/surprised-business-woman-looking-at-the-laptop-royalty-free-image/949299170

Old wives' tales start as stories we get told when we're young. Soon, these stories travel far and wide, becoming fact in the process. Rarely do people do research to discover whether these bits of information are true or not.

That's why the internet is our friend.


Reddit user, u/ZanyDelaney, wanted to hear about the false facts that needed to be cleared up when they asked:

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

Waste Not A Second

You can file a missing persons report as soon as the person goes missing. No need to wait 24 hrs or whatever

CaptainKangaroo_Pimp

It's actually a law (or is proposed, I can't remember) in my state that parents must report their child missing within 24 hours or they are charged with a felony.

emartinoo

Why Would You Try This To Begin With?

The boiling frog experiment that's quoted everywhere didn't work.

For those not familiar, it is said that you can boil a frog to death by raising the temperature of the water it's in extremely slowly so that it doesn't notice.

Well, it only works when parts of the frog's brain are removed. A frog with an intact brain will jump out, no matter how slowly the water is heated.

LiquidMotivation

Go Ahead. Pick It Up.

Touching a baby bird is not going to cause it's mother to abandon it.

An old wives tale designed to stopped kids messing with young chicks has now caused a generation of people to pass on this old belief without ever being corrected.

Yes, if you see a baby bird on the ground chances are it's mother kicked it out to teach it to fly or something, but if you need to cut the grass/ mow the lawn you can lift it and put it back in it's nest, it's mother isn't going to abandon it just because you touched it. That's like thinking a human mother would abandon a baby because a cat rubbed it's butt on it.

Toraden

That's Exactly What Someone Would Say Who Wants It

I work as a ride operator at Disneyland, and please just let me say this.

THE PURPLE TEACUP DOESN'T SPIN ANY FASTER THAN THE REST OF THEM PLEASE STOP GETTING INTO FIGHTS OVER IT

ValWondergroove

One Is Not The Other

Eating fat doesn't make you fat, what really does it is eating more calories than what you use.

teosito

The American war on fat started in the 80s. It was a huge mistake.

TheMoleBear

It Gets To Come Out

When you have an IV cannula inserted, a needle is used to insert the cannula but then the NEEDLE IS REMOVED and you're left with a tiny thin plastic (?) tube in the vein.

I think 50% of my patients don't realise there's not a needle in their arm for hours/days on end.

rebothy

It's A Place, Not A Thing

There is no specific Plymouth Rock, but there is an enshrined rock that someone basically picked out and people pilgrimage to.

arunkumarcea

Probably A Real Bad Name, Then

Flushable wipes aren't flushable. Toilet paper breaks down easy in water, but you ever seen a baby wipe rip up? Those things just end up clogging pipes and ruining the sewers.

Hell, New York (Sorry, LONDON. My bad.) found a huge mass of those things (along with a bunch of other junk) the size of a bus in the sewers thanks to those wipes.

Prof_Alchem

IIRC, makers of those wipes are allowed to call them "flushable" if they can get around the u-bend and out of the pipes of your home. Once they're in the sewer, what happens to them isn't considered a problem as far as the labelling is concerned. Which leads to a lot of people thinking they're fine to flush- or at least those that care about those sorts of things in the first place.

cosmogoinggoinggone

Einstein Was, Spoiler, Very Smart

Albert Einstein actually did very well in school as a boy and excelled in Math.

drotsios

Despite what people think Albert Einstein never failed math. The confusion likely comes from the grading system, but has been used for a long time to give people hope.

When he was shown a clipping from Ripley's Believe It or Not where that myth originated, he responded, "I never failed in mathematics. Before I was 15 I had mastered differential and integral calculus"

ReadYouShall

It'll Be Smaller Than You Think

"Curing cancer" isn't going to be a single eureka moment and BAM! cancer is gone forever. There are tons of different types of cancers, with different genetics and epigenetics playing into how they develop.

There seem to be people out there who think Big Pharma™️ is sitting on some magical cure that they're holding out on because they want to sell treatments. To even suggest that there's one catch-all cure is soooo reductive of what "cancer" is—it's not really one disease, it's tons of different ailments with different symptoms that happen to share some commonalities in the way the cells divide and spread.

boxpear

F-cking thank you... The amount of people I've just wanted to slap in the back of the head for saying "I know they have a cure!" gives me nightmares

zebrucie

What's a misconception you cannot bear let people believe anymore? Tell us about it!

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Donald Trump holding photos of White House ballroom
Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images

CNN Just Used A Hilarious Poll To Show Just How Unpopular Trump's Ballroom Is—And We're Cackling

After President Donald Trump claimed that his new White House ballroom is "very popular" with the American public, CNN shared a hilariously shady poll that gets to the truth of the matter.

Last year, Trump ordered the demolition of the entire East Wing to make way for a 90,000 square-foot ballroom that will dwarf the size of the White House itself, sparking alarm from historical preservationists and the public alike.

Keep Reading Show less
Screenshots from @devynnehaddoxx's TikTok video
@devynnehaddoxx/TikTok

Woman In Labor Times How Long Her Husband Takes To Poop To See If She Can Push Their Baby Out Faster In Hilarious Viral Video

It's well-known across the internet that it takes forever for men to use the restroom. For dads especially, in the time it takes them to poop, when they return to the house, their kids will have aged seven years, and their baby will have learned to walk.

These are jokes, of course, but it's an internet consensus that men spend a really long time on the porcelain throne.

Keep Reading Show less
David Letterman (left) has continued defending Stephen Colbert (right) as CBS faces backlash over canceling The Late Show.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images; Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images

David Letterman Rips 'Lying Weasels' At CBS For Claiming Colbert Was Canceled For Financial Reasons In Epic Takedown

David Letterman isn’t staying quiet about CBS canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. As Colbert’s run comes to an end later this month, the former late-night host is publicly challenging the network’s claim that the decision was purely financial.

Letterman, who hosted The Late Show from 1993 until stepping down in 2015, addressed the controversy during a new interview with New York Times journalist Jason Zinoman.

Keep Reading Show less
Billie Eilish on 'Good Hang'
Good Hang with Amy Poehler/YouTube

Billie Eilish's Refreshingly Blunt Take On Aging And 'Botched' Plastic Surgery Has Fans Nodding Hard

You know what they say: the grass is greener on the other side. Most people want something that they don't have.

While many people right now are fixated on appearing younger than their age, Billie Eilish—who already looks younger than her age—is looking forward to what comes next.

Keep Reading Show less
Screenshots from @archerhayesofficial's TikTok video
@archerhayesofficial/TikTok

Guy Films As Couple Delays Flight By An Hour After They Refused To Sit Apart From Each Other

TikToker Archer Hayes was ready to fly incognito with a baseball cap pulled down low, sunglasses, and his hoodie pulled up and tied around his face, ready to relax in the window seat.

Instead, Hayes recorded an entitled couple who delayed the flight by more than an hour—all because they were not seated together.

Keep Reading Show less