17 Popular Misconceptions People Wish Would Go Away

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Feb 5, 2019 1:00 PM EST

Some pieces of trivia can stick around in cultural consciousness for way too long, especially if they're untrue. It can be tempting to repeat a myth just because it sounds shocking and "unbelievable." There are oodles of misconceptions that people have about the past and future that just never seem to die.

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  • 01
    Text - 16 hours ago, CaptainKangaroo_Pimp 46.3k points You can file a missing persons report as soon as the person goes missing. No need to wait 24 hrs or whatever
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  • 02
    Text - LiquidMotivation 34.6k points 16 hours ago 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.
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  • 03
    Text - edited 35 minutes chloethegremlin 32.6k points 15 hours ago That I can't have sugar because I'm a type 1 diabetic. I slept over at a friend's house for their birthday, and her mom refused me cake, ice cream, and only let me have a cup of popcorn. I CAN EAT EVERYTHING YOU CAN EAT.
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  • 04
    Text - rahulmg05 34.9k points 17 hours ago Educated Europeans didn't think the world was flat in the 1400s.
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  • 05
    Text - boxpear 20.5k points 16 hours ago S "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 PharmaM 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
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  • 06
    Text - HoriOri 26.4k points 14 hours ago I was barred from participating in a school swimming race because I ate some chocolate beforehand and a teacher caught me. She said I would get a cramp and die and I had to wait 20 minutes. Even 8 year old me knew it was complete twaddle
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  • 07
    Text - 18 hours ago S teosito 25.0k points Eating fat doesn't make you fat, what really does it is eating more calories than what you use.
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  • 08
    Text - Mrs. Liebeck offered to settle the case for $20,000 to cover her medical expenses and lost income. But McDonald's never offered more than $800, so the case went to trial. The jury found Mrs. Liebeck to be partially at fault for her injuries, reducing the compensation for her injuries accordingly. But the jury's punitive damages award made headlines upset by McDonald's unwillingness to correct a policy despite hundreds of people suffering injuries, they awarded Liebeck the equivalent of tw
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  • 09
    Text - 17 hours ago drotsios 22.1k points Albert Einstein actually did very well in school as a boy and excelled in Math
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  • 10
    Text - Prof_Alchem 17.5k points 15 hours ago 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 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.
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  • 11
    Text - Jonsmith78 7.4k points 16 hours ago The "black box" (flight recorder) aircraft is orange, not black.
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  • 12
    Text - edited 5 minutes ValWondergroove 29.9k points 13 hours ago 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 EDIT: I would also like to say that people throwing up on that ride is actually not common at all, I have personally never seen it happen in my 3 years of working there
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  • 13
    Text - RajDoobay 3.4k points 16 hours ago Got to be Vikings having horns on their helmets.
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  • 14
    Text - GlamRockfor Breakfast 22.1k points 18 hours ago S2 The McDonalds coffee lady didn't exaggerate. Reply Share Report Save to_the_tenth_power 13.6k points 17 hours ago Mrs. Liebeck was not driving when her coffee spilled, nor was the car she was in moving. She was the passenger in a car that was stopped in the parking lot of the McDonald's where she bought the coffee. She had the cup between her knees while removing the lid to add cream and sugar when the cup tipped over and spilled the enti
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  • 15
    Text - 17 hours ago arunkumarcea 20.2k points There is no specific Plymouth Rock, but there is an enshrined rock that someone basically picked out and people pilgrimage to.
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  • 16
    Text - 16 hours ago sutkusman 11.6k points That few people lived past their 30s in the middle ages or some other ancient era. This misconception arises because of an automatic and incorrect assumption people make when they hear the statistic 'the average life expectancy was 35 in the middle ages'. In reality there have always been lots of people who live to 70+ years old in all societies. The difference was that in the middle ages there were many childhood diseases that caused a much higher chil
    via AskReddit
  • 17
    Text - 17 hours ago ulanderdennis 10.4k points The myth: Napoleon really short was The truth: He was actually average height, even a little bit above average height or How did it come about?: The archaic French measurement used stated he was around 53, when in actuality that translates to about 57 in today's measurements, which was average for the time Reply Share Report Save gregspornthrowaway 3.7k points 13 hours ago There are several factors that combined to create this myth: 1. Discrepancy b
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  • 18
    Text - LebronsForehead 9.8k points 18 hours ago I didn't actually shit my pants in 4th grade! Garrett put a barbecue sauce packet in my chair before I sat down!
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