I Was Today Years Old When I Learned Some Of These Commonly Believed "Facts" Aren't Actually True
If you've ever spent literally even five minutes on the internet, you know exactly how easy it is for false information to spread. C'mon, we've all been guilty of reading something and perhaps not fact-checking it as closely as we should be before telling someone else, right?
Whether they've spread via the interwebs or from generation to generation via word of mouth, there are tonssss of "facts" people go their whole lives believing even though they're actually 1000% false. And some of them become so widely spread and accepted, they become myths or urban legends themselves. Well, recently redditor u/N615JB asked, "What urban legend needs to die?" Here are 14 of the most popular, commonly believed ones, and the truth behind them:
1."The 'fact' that you eat spiders in your sleep is fake."
According to FOX8 WGHP, the myth originated from a fake facts article by Lisa Birgit Holst. As it turns out, the article and the author were fake, and the whole thing was an effort by Snopes to highlight how easy it is to spread misinformation online. Still, people often cite the fake article as the source for this "fact."
2."That you can target fat loss on a particular place on your body, like tummy fat. Fat doesn't know where it lives."
"I've been lifting for about 10 years now. Anytime I hear someone say something about 'target fat loss,' I just say, 'If you could target fat loss, there'd be a lot of fat guys with six packs.'"
When you work out, your fat is broken down into glycerol and free fatty acids for your body to use as fuel. In turn, these enter your bloodstream. This fat can come from anywhere in your body, so working out one specific area doesn't mean that is where the fat you are breaking down is coming from when you exercise. Our bodies are unable to target fat like this because it must be broken down before being used as fuel, and the way fat cells are stored in our bodies (as triglycerides) isn't usable by our muscles as is. You can read more about this here.
3."Ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand if they’re afraid of something! It's one of my biggest animal myth pet peeves."
What's actually going on is that ostriches use holes in the dirt as nests for their eggs. When people "see" ostriches burying their heads in the sand, what they're actually seeing is them digging a hole or turning their eggs.
4."That you need to wait 24 hours to report someone as missing. This is a myth — you can, and SHOULD, report someone as missing as soon as they go missing."
"My job is to answer 911 calls. If you believe someone has gone missing or something bad has happened to them — even in the last five minutes — tell us. If you give us some proof of concern, we’re going to send you help right away."
"We had a full-blown helicopter search last week at a lake near my house because a kid went missing for about 10 minutes. They found him playing at a near playground about half an hour later. But the police press guy said that the mother did the right thing, especially since the kid went missing so close to a lake."—u/Wrongkalonka
When it comes to finding missing people, the first 48 hours are particularly crucial. There is no required waiting period to report someone as missing.
5."That you can't get STDs from oral sex. You absolutely can! One of the clinics I work at is a free sexual health clinic. Too many women are in there for mouth/throat/other digestive problems stemming from unprotected oral sex and various STDs."
You can learn more about it here.
6."That vaginas get 'loose' from having sex. It's wild that there are really men out here that believe this!"
"I love that it's implied that they're loose if they've had sex with a lot of different men. But if it's the same guy over and over it doesn't get loose? How does that make sense?"
OB/GYN Lauren Averbuch, MD explained the common misconception to Refinery 29, saying, “What I'd like others to understand is that the vagina is composed of multiple muscles that define the pelvic floor...These muscles can tighten and relax depending on the circumstances. During arousal, the muscles relax. The relaxation of muscles can make the vagina more or less accommodating."
SME / Via youtube.com
7."That you can safely live in the Bermuda triangle. I live in Bermuda. The triangle is smack dab in the middle of hurricane territory, so ships and planes back in the day (that didn’t have weather mapping) would get spanked by them frequently. It’s so irritating when you’re trying to introduce yourself, saying, 'I’m from Bermuda' and the response is 'LiKe ThE tRiAnGle oMg hOw diD YoU sUrViVe?'"
"Many a hurricane passes through the 'triangle' every single year. Go back a couple hundred years and I’m sure you’d think that traveling through there was ‘cursed’ when realistically it was just a stupid time of year to travel that way."
According to the National Ocean Service, the area is particularly difficult for ships to navigate due not only to severe and frequent storms (most tropical storms or hurricanes in the Atlantic pass through this region), but also shallow waters from numerous islands and quickly changing weather due to the Gulf Stream. It's also believed to be an area where compasses can point to "true north" rather than "magnetic north," making navigation even more difficult.
8."Detoxing treatments. NO Sharon, 'harmful chemicals' are not just going to ooze out of your face and feet if you use those masks. That's not how the human body works at all!"
According to several nutritionists that spoke to HuffPost, "The body is naturally designed to be able to clear waste materials such as toxins, chemicals, and old hormones in order to prevent an accumulation of potentially toxic and harmful byproducts building up in our systems." Another explained, "Our bodies do not actually need to be 'detoxed.' This is because they already do a very good job of this naturally – mainly through the actions of the liver, kidneys, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract."
9."That it's super illegal to turn on the light inside your car while driving at night."
According to Sgt. Brian Pennings of the California Highway Patrol, it is not, in fact illegal. You can probably thank your parents for perpetuating this myth after baby-you tried turning the inside light on one too many times on a long car ride.
10."That doctors will let you die if you are a registered organ donor to steal your organs."
"My stepson actually believed this and also believed that the same was true for EMS personnel that worked on ambulances. I actually got into an argument with him about it because I thought that was the stupidest thing ever, as if the medics are pulling out your wallet to check your donor status before they start administering first aid. Once I pointed that out he started to reconsider the ridiculousness of the theory, but I'm pretty sure he still believes that it's true once you get to the hospital."
On the United Network for Organ Sharing's website, they clarify this misconception, explaining, "If you are sick or injured and admitted to the hospital, the number one priority is to save your life. Organ donation can only be considered after death has been declared by a physician."
11."That people only use 10% of their brain."
This, of course, is not true. It's possible that at some times, like when we're resting, we may only be using a small portion of our brains, perhaps around 10%. However, according to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine neurologist Barry Gordon, most of our brain is active almost all the time, and we use virtually every part of our brains.
12."The idea that there are people in your neighborhood just waiting for the chance to poison your kids by giving them unwrapped Halloween candy."
"This just supports the Stranger Danger schtick. While that is important and bad things can happen in your own neighborhood, it actually wouldn't have helped in the one actual time kids were poisoned via Halloween candy. In that case, it wasn't a random person poisoning candy for a kick — it was a father who was trying to kill his child for the insurance money."
You can read about the real-life "Candyman" case here.
13."That touching baby birds will cause their mothers to reject them because they smell like human. They absolutely will not. Don't go messing with babies for kicks, but touching a baby bird or its nest won't prevent its mother from returning. If you aren't sure and an animal is injured, call a wildlife rehabilitator so you're not putting fledglings where they don't belong."
In reality, most birds can't smell very well and bird parents have an "innate drive to nurture their broods" according to wildlife biologist Elizabeth Manning. She recommends that, in most cases, you should leave baby birds and nests alone, as their mother is likely nearby and waiting for you to leave. But in the case of an accident or emergency, your human scent won't actually result in a mother abandoning her chicks.
14.And finally, "That it's a felony offense to rip the tag off of your mattress. It is ONLY illegal for stores and manufacturers to rip the tags off of new mattresses for sale. However, once you buy it, feel free to rip that annoying tag off."
"Back in the '80s the tag only stated, 'DO NOT REMOVE THIS TAG UNDER PENALTY OF LAW' and every single '80s kid was terrified of doing this. I think it was in the late '90s that they finally added some language that clarified that the end client could remove the tag."
Here's a little back story: In the past, manufacturers and sellers weren't required to list what mattresses were made of. So to save money, manufacturers sometimes filled mattresses — including ones that were previously used in hospitals — with things like straw or unclean recycled materials that may themselves contain harmful bacteria or bedbugs. When the government began requiring manufacturers to list these things on the mattress itself, they'd comply, but sellers would rip the tags off before being shown to customers because it meant they technically were following the rules. Thus, the "Do Not Remove by Penalty of Law" tag was created. You can read more about this here.
Do you know of an urban legend or myth like these that most people don't know is false? If so, tell us about it in the comments below!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
