30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In

From Santa (sorry…) to Bigfoot, there are hoaxes, lies, and old stories that don’t seem to die off, despite most people not believing them. Maybe they are comforting, interesting or so ingrained that a small portion of the population still clings on to these beliefs.

Someone asked, “What is the biggest hoax that people still believe?” and people shared all the delusions they had encountered. So get ready to possibly have your worldview shattered, make sure you are comfortable as you read through and upvote your favorite examples. Comment your thoughts and arguments below.

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30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In All that detox health science bs. Your body already has a detox system. It's called your liver.

EnvironmentLow9075 , Angela Roma Report

Final score:

260points

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axisgaymtf 12 months ago

FACTS!!

42points

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30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In The privatized American “healthcare” system.

It takes billions of American taxpayer money to “operate” while *also* charging Americans billions on insurance premiums and fees.

Americans should either pay taxes that cover universal healthcare *or* pay insurance premiums and/or fees, NOT BOTH.

racoon-fountain , Pixabay Report

Final score:

250points

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Joe Publique 12 months ago

Lol. How do you make 50% of Americans lose their minds? Prefix any word with 'social'.

111points

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30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In The Wakefield Paper. A deliberate hoax commissioned by a crooked law firm seeing to profit from legal judgments based upon the entirely falsified “results” of the “study”. This single act of entirely knowing and intentional fraud precipitated the greatest public health catastrophe of the antibiotic era: the modern antivaxx movement.

OHRunAndFun , Ivan Radic Report

Final score:

232points

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Joe Publique 12 months ago

Personally, I love anti-vaxxers because they remind me that no matter how bad my day gets I’ll never be that selfish, stupid, or misinformed.

27points

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30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In "Be loyal to your company and they'll reward you"

Bull f*****g s**t... Only thing they'll do is exploit you more.

RaptureRising , Tima Miroshnichenko Report

Final score:

230points

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John 12 months ago

Company loyalty is to itself first and last. You'll be cut as soon as they don't need you

53points

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30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In That wealth trickles down

frenziedkoalabuddy , WoodysMedia Report

Final score:

192points

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Joe Publique 12 months ago

Yup. Let's try 'trickle-up' economics. Poor people spend their money. Wealthy people hoard it.

87points

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30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In That cutting taxes for the rich is good for workers.

Pfffft.

Lutiskilea Report

Final score:

180points

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Michael Largey 12 months ago

Cutting taxes on the rich gives them cash to buy out their competition, merge the companies, and then lay workers off. We've only seen that happen a couple of thousand times.

11points

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30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In “You can lose 25 pounds in three weeks and never feel hungry while eating all the delicious foods you want. Just call this 800 number…”

Gorf_the_Magnificent , Andres Ayrton Report

Final score:

170points

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Disappointed Optimist 12 months ago

Those scams 😩

32points

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30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Homeopathy
>
Germany, the birthplace of this movement, still allows people to study ‘MD Homeopathy’ despite the EU largely being opposed to it. In India one can get certified as a “Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery”. Most countries, while not recognising homeopathy doctors as legitimate, still allow sale of their “remedies” because they don’t see the harm in what are essentially sugar tablets and diluted alcohol.

dscchn , Nataliya Vaitkevich Report

Final score:

147points

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Zaach 12 months ago

Recently, homeopathic eye drops have caused blindness so not so harmless

30points

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30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In I've met more than one person who turned down a raise because they thought they'd end up making less money because of taxes.

Nahhhh, son. Nah.

freestyle43 , Monstera Production Report

Final score:

144points

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Beth H 12 months ago

My brain refuses to believe this but my heart knows people are this stupid

47points

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#10

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In The stigma around MSG.

toastyavocadoes , Douglas Muth Report

Final score:

132points

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TheBlueBitterfly 12 months ago

I loves me some MSG!

41points

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#11

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In that blood is blue when inside your body. I remember getting into it with a gym teacher he insisted “blood is blue inside your body but turns red when it’s exposed to the oxygen in the air like when you get a cut” but bloods whole purpose is to carry oxygen INSIDE the body, therefore it’s always red, and not turned red because the oxygen in the air.

apparently i’m still heated about that lmao

Stupid-ForYou , Karolina Grabowska Report

Final score:

129points

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Louise B 12 months ago (edited)

To be fair, gym teachers aren't exactly on the A squad when it comes to academics. (That wasn't fair, I'm still bitter about my experiences at school my PE teacher was a vicious cow - and she took waaaay to much interest in the red-heads showering 🤔)

42points

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#12

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Healing Crystals.

"Oh, if I put this inert rock next to my wrist, it'll help with my arthritis?"

sloopieone , Alina Vilchenko Report

Final score:

129points

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Nonna_SoF 12 months ago

Crystals are however an essential part of lasers, and lasers are cool.

87points

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#13

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Alkaline water is pseudoscience, any chemist or doctor will confirm this

secularJ , unknown Report

Final score:

126points

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Hphizzle 12 months ago

I always like to add a little lemon to my alkaline water. /s

150points

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#14

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In All you have to do is work hard and you’ll get rich.

WWDB , Andrea Piacquadio Report

Final score:

124points

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Enlee Jones 12 months ago

The reward for hard work is more work.

55points

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#15

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Humans only use 10% of their brain (well lately I guess some do)

DrummerBob10 , RF._.studio Report

Final score:

118points

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RosenCranzLives 12 months ago

You use about 83% of it just to go to the washroom.

23points

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#16

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Pyramid schemes.

Happy_Bullfrog_5379 , Luis Quintero Report

Final score:

117points

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Mav Mav 12 months ago

They only make the Pharaohs rich.

51points

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#17

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Im a police officer, and Ive had people tell me that ALL police officers MUST by law say they are cops if/when they are asked, including cops that are undercover. I tried to explain this would defeat the purpose of being undercover because the criminals would just simply ask "Are you a cop?" to everyone they were committing crimes with and invest is over. There is no such law but i can never win the argument.

actionjaxn411 , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:

116points

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Fynne 12 months ago

I know nothing about this, but it sounds like this myth could’ve been started by police forces, so that idiot criminals will believe it

55points

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#18

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In The hysteria over GMO food. It is demonstrably fine. We have been genetically modifying food in an uncontrolled way since before the written word. The idea that it's *more* haphazard and dangerous when done with precision by scientists with advanced technology is completely absurd.

Also, trees and plants can't run away from predators, they have to protect themselves with chemistry. Pesticides are naturally occuring and omnipresent. In fact, food we consider inedible is mostly that due to the presence of said pesticides, compounds in them which make them unpalatable or dangerous for us to eat.

DeadFyre , David Prasad Report

Final score:

116points

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 12 months ago (edited)

People are mostly freaked out about TRANSGENIC food that has other genes from other species inserted. First the majority of GMO foods are simply bred that way. Gene insertion has also been rigorously tested by FDA and USDA. BTW, my degree is in FOOD SCIENCE. These modified foods allow us to grow hardier crops that need less pesticide and fungicide and keep people from STARVING TO DEATH.

71points

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#19

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In One big lie that some people still believe is that cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. It's been debunked, but it's amazing how many still believe it!

blandsiding , Eren Li Report

Final score:

103points

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axisgaymtf 12 months ago

its just air that has been built up is all,it dosnt harm you or anything

25points

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#20

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In The food pyramid.

Scurvy-Banana , Rachael Moore Report

Final score:

90points

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Sue Denham 12 months ago

Toblerone.

76points

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#21

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Shaving making hair grow in thicker.

WarpedMathematician , cottonbro studio Report

Final score:

89points

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Fynne 12 months ago

It does in a way. The hair is thicker near the base, so when you cut the thin top and it grows a little, it will feel and look a little thicker.

26points

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#22

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In The common cold is caused by being cold.

BubbhaJebus , Andre Furtado Report

Final score:

89points

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Fynne 12 months ago

Being cold can, however weaken the immune system causing you to be more prone to colds

82points

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#23

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In I think the amount of people that continue to fall for hustle culture and the snake oil salesmen push it. There is huge emphasis in modern society on not only being rich but being rich young by the simplest/fast means necessary. Its honestly depressing how many people continue to purchase master classes/work shops that all filled with surface level near useless information.

reddit.com , Ron Lach Report

Final score:

87points

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Ace 12 months ago

If someone's peddling their 'get rich quick' scheme through books, classes or workshops you are actually a contributing part of their scheme. If they genuinely had all the answers they'd already be rich and wouldn't need or want to pass their secrets on to anyone else.

24points

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#24

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Chiropractic adjustments, getting your vertabrae popped and ground on a frequent basis is good for you.

mywifesoldestchild , Cojanu Alexandru Report

Final score:

82points

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TheBlueBitterfly 12 months ago

And now there's INFANT chiropractors!? No, just.. no.

53points

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#25

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Drinking 8 glasses of water a day. Gluten being bad for you if you don’t have celiacs.

Joel22222 , Maurício Mascaro Report

Final score:

70points

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Sonja 12 months ago

The problem is the lack of education on food in general and not knowing about food safety in combination with companies cutting corners left and right with cheap mass production. Humans can't properly digest raw flour. If you try it, you'll get horrible stomach pains. From badly cooked yeast you'll get bloated and gassy. But companies nowaday bake cheap bread on roll through ovens. The flour and yeast doesn't cook completely through. So if you have problems after eating wheat bread, try toasting the bread before eating. If that helps, you have neither celiac disease nor gluten intolerance. Either change the brand of bread you buy or keep toasting it if you can't afford different bread. Now, I'm sure now some people will whine: BuT iF I EaT GlUtEn FrEe I dOn'T hAvE pRoBleMs... Yes, of course, that's because most gluten free alternatives either don't have wheat or the gluten is removed and you only eat the starch which means that the wheat was processed and often has no yeast.

15points

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#26

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Don’t go swimming after eating

FreshStartRetry , Dương Nhân Report

Final score:

62points

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Puppy Dancing! 12 months ago

This was invented by pool owners to reduce puke in the pool.

34points

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#27

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Carrots improve your eyesight. This was English propaganda during WW2. They didn't want Germany to know that they had radar which spotted their bombers. It was those sharp eyes of Brit's pilots.

om54 , Ron Lach Report

Final score:

61points

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Fakeus nameus 12 months ago

Cheerio mate, fancy a spot of carrots so we can spot them German jets? I’ll go right ahead and fetch them old chap.

19points

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#28

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In That going to sleep with or going out with wet hair causes a cold.

geordiesteve520 , Polina Kovaleva Report

Final score:

54points

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AtMostTheFabulist Premium 12 months ago

I used to walk to school with wet hair in the winter. Which would freeze. I would be brushing ice out of my hair for a half hour. Never got sick.

34points

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#29

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Milk for strong bones.

Dairy industry advertising campaign that isn't supported by evidence and in fact we have a good amount of evidence to the contrary.

Thatweasel , samer daboul Report

Final score:

44points

POST

Puppy Dancing! 12 months ago

Rickets is almost eliminated in countries with mIlk consumption.

45points

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#30

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In Recycling is saving the environment

hbsboak , Lisa Fotios Report

Final score:

23points

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SlightlyTarnished 12 months ago

I've never heard anyone say "recycling is saving the environment". Recycling makes sense, reduces some raw material requirements, and is beneficial to the environment, though "saving", nope.

101points

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What do you think ?

Gustav Gallifrey 12 months ago

Hey, BP: Can we stop with the 'popular hoaxes' threads until you hear of some new ones? Because 1. these are tired, and 2. it makes you look very lazy.

13points

Pasej 12 months ago

Fantastic list! I can't wait to read it again in a week and then again the week after that.

Zakaar Bovus 12 months ago (edited)

What about the week after that?

3points

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Sergio Bicerra 12 months ago

One that's not being said: you won't grow 3 inches in a month, and i'm not talking about height.

4points

MayaGeGe 12 months ago

Hahaha

2points

longlivethequeen554 12 months ago

These are not all hoaxes - check facts people. And yes, I'm aware I'm gonna get downvoted

Mary Peace 11 months ago

I upvoted you. Some of the comments were very confusing, people contradicting each other until you don't know what to believe. Back where I started on a lot of issues.

1point

Let's add: fortune tellers, psychics, mediums, etc...

Mike Fitzpatrick 12 months ago

Gee, it's THIS one again, how exciting! /s

John Harrison 12 months ago

With the entire internet at their disposal, BP reaches into the recycle bin once again.

MasterJoseph 12 months ago

I have one: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That phrase is not necessarily true, since it was made to sell Grape-Nuts of all things!

T.O.S.o.R. 12 months ago

College education. A person that learns a skilled trade can earn $100,000/year or more and not have a $200,000 debt to pay.

I'm sure at least two or three of these are 'new' since the last time it was posted.

Thenatural 12 months ago

Let's add....sex is malleable and you can change it.

0points

BTDubs 12 months ago

Ladies, Gentlemen and Gentlethem, we got a transphobe... Again.

30 Biggest Hoaxes That Some People Still Believe In

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