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We humans are a weird bunch. Some of us are shooting a spacecraft at an asteroid to demonstrate that it's a viable technique to protect the planet but others still insist that swallowed gum will stay in our stomachs for 7 years.

Interested in hearing the most prevalent misconceptions, Reddit user FM596 made a post on the platform, asking everyone to share myths that are passed from generation to generation, and that people still believe in. Turns out, there's no shortage of those! Continue scrolling and check out some of the most-upvoted entries.

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#1

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Vaccines cause Autisim.

thugbunny12 , Steven Cornfield Report

Final score:
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#2

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That certain animal 'parts' have healing/magical properties. Like tiger whiskers protect the wearer or rhino horn cures impotence and hangovers.

storm-in-a-teapot , David Clode Report

Final score:
231points
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We managed to get in touch with FM596 and they agreed to tell us more about what inspired their post. "One of the reasons I decided to ask this question was to see how many people will mention the thousand-years-old-myth of supposedly living in a democracy (in any country)," they told Bored Panda.

"Democracy was real and has existed only once. After it was violently destroyed, leaders used the word democracy to mislead us into thinking that what we have is the best we can get."

"Out of the 12,000 comments, only 12 people mentioned that myth, just 1 out of 12,000, or 0.008%. That says a lot about the level of political edification we get from the state."
#3

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Boys playing with dolls (or other traditional feminine toys) will turn them gay. Or that anything will turn people gay or lesbian.

Lmh68 , Etienne Assenheimer Report

Final score:
212points
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#4

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Trickle down economics.

TwoTeapotsForXmas , Scott Graham Report

Final score:
167points
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However, after going through the replies, FM596 thinks not all of them are valid. "First, not everything posted as a myth is, indeed, a myth. Many [of the entries] are half-truths, others are imprecisely expressed or misunderstood, and others are definitely non-myths."

The Redditor believes that, "we are ignorant on many critical subjects, because: "a) we get a really bad education from the state, and b) we are being bombarded daily with misleading information that aims to serve the best interests of the powerful few -not the people, and that's a fact, not a myth, that's the world we live in."
#5

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That being out in cold weather will make you catch a Cold. The cold is a virus you catch from others and nothing to do with the outside temperature.

The_Geordie_Gripster , Kristin Vogt Report

Final score:
166points
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#6

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That you have to wait 24 hours before filing a missing person report.

Alex Green Report

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Ironically, as much as we like to think that we value truth, we have also designed the world in a way that makes it really hard for it to travel between us.

There's a well-known MIT study from 2018 that analyzed the spread of news stories on Twitter. Using data drawn from 3 million platform users from 2006 to 2017, the researchers, led by Soroush Vosoughi, a computer scientist who is now at Dartmouth, found that fact-checked news stories moved differently through social networks depending on whether they were true or false.

"Falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth," they wrote in their paper.
#7

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That the hymen is a freshness seal like a snapple cap, has any bearing on virginity, and your first time should hurt and cause bleeding

Honey-and-Venom , DANNY G Report

Final score:
154points
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#8

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Religion, easily.

I get that people believe in religion but they have zero proof that any of it is true.

DreamerMMA , Noah Holm Report

Final score:
149points
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#9

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That GMOs are bad. Without GMOs, we wouldn't have a lot of the food we have today.

Th3MadCreator , Ralph (Ravi) Kayden Report

Final score:
145points
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#10

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That we use 10% of our brain. Power or capacity, this was actually proven to be b******t.

SadFront7566 , Kenny Eliason Report

Final score:
144points
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#11

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That shaving makes hair grow back thicker and longer.

DazzlingDifficulty36 , Christoffer Engström Report

Final score:
141points
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#12

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing I got pregnant in 2002 and people legit told me I shouldn't raise my arms over my head because the cord would wrap around the baby's neck. Not just great grandmas telling me this either. People at my restaurant job fussed at me all the time for getting things off high shelves. Insane.

YouSeaBlue , Jernej Graj Report

Final score:
141points
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#13

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That your generation is always the last good generation.

Special-Sandwich-324 , Everjean Report

Final score:
135points
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#14

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Swallowed gum will stay in your stomach for 7 years. Never seen a single wad of gum in the hundreds of thousands of stomachs I’ve looked into.

DoctorJonesMD , cottonbro Report

Final score:
131points
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#15

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Over cracking your knuckles will lead to arthritis.

HairoftheDog89 , Eren Li Report

Final score:
127points
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#16

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That fish only have a 5-second memory. My fish are fed automatically on a timer and they know dinner time better than my goddamn cat.

Osr0 , Brian Wangenheim Report

Final score:
124points
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#17

That your hair and fingernails still grow after you die. It's mainly an optical illusion. Your skin decays and shrinks, causing hair and fingernails to look like they've grown.

CasinoKitten Report

Final score:
116points
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#18

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That birds will abandon their babies if they have a human scent on them.

Dora_Rock , Maurice Schalker Report

Final score:
113points
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#19

That cats kill babies.

I’ve run into this so many times since having kids. And it’s not the older grandmas making these statements. I’ve had 20 year olds tell me that you can’t have cats if you plan to have babies because “they’ll steal their breath” or some other variation. No amount of reasoning or rationale will dissuade them of this belief

anothertimesometime Report

Final score:
112points
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#20

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Circumcision is medically beneficial enough to be *routinely* done to every male infant born, rather than just like.. you know… waiting to see if it’s actually necessary.

Fit-ish_Mom , Carlo Navarro Report

Final score:
111points
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#21

Pit bulls can lock their jaws. If they bite you then you have to kill them because their jaws are locked.

No, I am not kidding. I’ve heard this BS from the elderly and from kids. They just keep repeating this nonsense.

Not_the_EOD Report

Final score:
102points
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#22

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing 90% of the myths surrounding pregnancy and childbirth.

If the baby’s heart rate is fast it’s a girl. If you crave sweet things it’s a girl, if you are carrying “high” it’s a girl.

They’re the only ones I can think of at the moment but there are so many other myths out there.

squeephish , freestocks Report

Final score:
99points
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#23

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Lightning never strikes the same place twice.

SuvenPan , Dan Meyers Report

Final score:
99points
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jessicablankenship avatar
Jessica Blankenship
Jessica Blankenship
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tell that to the people struck multiple times lol

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Arliss Speace
Arliss Speace
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I worked with a guy whose uncle was struck multiple times. My co worker had been struck twice. Is it genetic somehow? makes me wonder.

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Cubbypotato
Cubbypotato
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

lightning can, and often does, strike the same place repeatedly

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idrow1
idrow1
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was reading a story the other day about lightening striking the same tree three different times.

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Mosheh Wolf
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In fact, lightning is more likely to strike in the same place than elsewhere.

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Nolgoth
Nolgoth
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Norseforged on tiktok has been struck by lightning twice lol

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*screams*
*screams*
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, Lake Maracaibo actually gets massive lightning storms 140-160 nights per year! So with an average of 28 strikes per minute, that’s 40,000 lightning strikes per night!

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NightmaresNope
NightmaresNope
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tell that to the dude (From one of the other posts) who was struck twice, and a third struck his grave.

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G'ma B
G'ma B
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you have lots of iron in your blood … stay in during a lightning storm!

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Vix Spiderthrust
Vix Spiderthrust
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I read somewhere that in its first year the Empire State Building was struck by lightning about eighty times.

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tara
tara
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reg got is 66 times...in the HEAD!

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Scott Rackley
Scott Rackley
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ask the guy that got hit 7 times. God tried his best to kill that man but a woman succeeded.

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#24

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Someone can be tested to determine their virginity status. Hymens aren't barriers, they aren't supposed to be broken, and they heal when they do tear. No one, not even a doctor can look at someone and know they're a virgin or not.

Much_Elephant , Clay Banks Report

Final score:
98points
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#25

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Bulls become angry seeing the color red.

SuvenPan , Giovanni Calia Report

Final score:
93points
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#26

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That reading in dim lighting will cause you to lose your eyesight.

Dora_Rock , BENCE BOROS Report

Final score:
93points
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#27

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing If you watch the TV too much or too close, you will go blind

rhi_x , Jens Kreuter Report

Final score:
88points
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#28

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing You eat 8 spiders a lifetime

Your_Enabler , James Petts Report

Final score:
86points
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#29

One that's still not known well is the white people in the south and middle America that think they are part Cherokee. You're like 99.9% sure to be wrong. Your family is wrong. There wasn't a "Cherokee princess" or any of that. It's a folks tale basically. And your grandma was told the same as a kid, she told your mom, hour mom td you.

People get defensive about this because you have to accept that A) Your family accidentally mislead you on something your whole life, and B) you don't have some magic Cherokee princess Native American blood. You're just white.

This is what happened with Elizabeth Warren. She was told this tale and believed she was part Cherokee. I was also told this and believed it while growing up. Almost all of my friends were told the same about themselves too.

Just a folk tale passed down the generations

appleparkfive Report

Final score:
80points
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#30

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Carrots improve vision. Has to be on the list for top propaganda campaigns. Started in WWII to cover for the use of radar. Still to this day more people I meet believe it than don't.

Neither-Storage-4157 , Markus Spiske Report

Final score:
68points
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#31

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Sugar does not make kids hyper.

Before you say "I'm a parent, and I can promise you it does", consider when kids have plenty of sugar. Birthday parties, exciting events, etc. *That* makes them spin up.

If sugar was a direct cause of making kids hyper, why can they sit on a couch mashing candy for four hours while watching Frost on repeat. There's also the fact that kids are... You know, kids. Sometimes they're activated, sometimes they're not. Regardless of sugar intake.

Meior , Vika Strawberrika Report

Final score:
35points
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#32

The right side of your brain is for creativity and the left is for logic. If I see one more psych student with that sticker I’m gonna lose it

Cannanda Report

Final score:
30points
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#33

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing In my country there's still a lot of people believing that first period blood is good for skin, like if u spread it on your face they say it will make your skin clear and you will not have acne if u did. It's dumb, stupid & disgusting.

marymiru_ , Alena Shekhovtcova Report

Final score:
30points
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#34

Taking hot showers is good for sunburn. Helps draw out the stinging. When I was young I would always get sunburnt on vacation my dad always told me to take hot showers. I suffered through the pain thinking it would help. Turns out it’s the worst thing you can do.

mister-Cage Report

Final score:
26points
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#35

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing Touching a frog/toad will give you warts.

PizzaLover_420 , Sergiu Nista Report

Final score:
25points
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#36

Every once in a blue moon I stumble across someone who believes that cabbits are a thing. Some people genuinely believe that a cat and rabbit can bang and produce viable offspring, but anyone with an ounce of common sense should understand that it would be impossible.

Theearthhasnoedges Report

Final score:
25points
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#37

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing If your eyes stayed open during a sneeze, those mf's would pop right out

cdizzo23 , Edward Jenner Report

Final score:
25points
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#38

sex can make your vagina loose

alonelyolive Report

Final score:
24points
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#39

If I get a raise at work, I’ll pay more taxes and just make *less* money!

Inoffensive_Account Report

Final score:
22points
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#40

Having the overhead light on in a car while driving is illegal.

Outrageous_Ad_9310 Report

Final score:
22points
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#41

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That pissing in a pool makes the water go purple.

Jon_Wedge , Erik Mclean Report

Final score:
22points
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#42

I was told as a kid if I touched myself I’d go blind. I used to love telling that to optometrists, until laser eye surgery completely ruined that joke!

DrPooMD Report

Final score:
17points
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#43

That you should give cats milk.

Smile_Terrible Report

Final score:
17points
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#44

Putting something still warm in the fridge will cause it to go bad.

Leaving it out actually allows bacteria to grow faster and putting it in the fridge will reduce the time it spends in the danger zone. Although, it should be put separate from other fridge items, as it can unnecessarily warm those items and potentially reduce their lifespans.

awssjay Report

Final score:
16points
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#45

That eating after a certain time causes weight gain, when in fact it has more to do with what time you go to sleep and not a specific time of the day

HoesDontGetC0ld Report

Final score:
16points
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#46

That you won't get hired or taken seriously with piercings or tattoos. I've held a few jobs over the last 15 years that actually took your qualifications more seriously than your appearance.

S**t, even when I got my first adult job at age 20 as a medical filing clerk, I got my tongue pierced a few months later & my manager was like "you never had a lisp before" (tongue was swollen so I couldn't talk without a lisp) & when I showed her, she only said "hopefully the patients don't see it" & that was it.

I'm tired of ppl saying these things make you unprofessional. I respect those who choose to get tatted or pierced in unseen locations but stop telling ppl it's taboo. Times are changing & appearance does not necessarily translate into one's personality or intelligence

Ellieawi_07 Report

Final score:
13points
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#47

The reason astronauts float on the International Space Station isn't because of low gravity, they're would actually be 90% of Earth's gravity but its actually because its in a perpetual free fall.

Forlonic Report

Final score:
12points
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#48

Not a myth exactly, but more of a misconception.
Yawning is not because of boredom or for getting more oxygen to your brain. The latest research points to yawning assisting in lowering brain temperature.

ArcRust Report

Final score:
12points
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#49

Don't eat before swimming

Your_Enabler Report

Final score:
11points
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#50

My dad insisted that if you didn't dry your hair immediately after getting out of the shower you would "catch your death of cold." As far as he was concerned, letting your hair stay damp would immediately give you a respiratory illness. Similarly, putting away dishes that weren't completely dry would putrify and poison someone. I know germ theory wasn't very well understood when he was a lad, but water was basically the end of all things as we know it to him.

ImGCS3fromETOH Report

Final score:
10points
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#51

Losing 90% heat through your head

nobodysperfcet Report

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10points
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#52

That Nightshade is a poisonous plant.

The European variety of nightshade, Belladonna, is poisonous, however there are other varieties that are completely edible. When European explorers went over to the Americas and Africa, faced with the contradiction of seeing indigenous peoples eating nightshade stalks and leaves as a part of their diet, came to the conclusion that it must be because the indigenous people were closer to animals than humans.

To this day people still believe that Black nightshade is a poisonous plant— entirely rooted in racism, scholars across generations have defended this lie.

garrgoyyle Report

Final score:
8points
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#53

30 Common Myths That People Have To Finally Stop Believing That women’s menstrual cycles sync up with each other after being around each other for a long enough time.

astroember , Behnam Norouzi Report

Final score:
4points
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#54

Checking Halloween candy for whatever the hell it was checked for - razors, drugs, whatever the myth was

DFHartzell Report

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1point
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