People will believe anything you tell them. Yes I’m aware of the paradoxical nature of that statement but it’s entirely true. People accept the first opinion they hear on a matter and accept it as fact. We’re all perpetrators of this, but what’s really shocking to discover, is that some of these fallacies have been circling our societies for decades, spread blindly by the individuals who choose to believe them. Today we shall Trump those misleading facts which have survived for too long and together we can rid the world of inadequacy. Next week, we’ll try poverty.
#1 – Humans only use 10% of their brains. This is ridiculous. The person who made this one up was actually probably only using 10% of their brain. Often attributed to the findings of Albert Einstein, this myth has been around for an age.
Neurologist Barry Gordon describes the myth as laughably false, adding, "we use virtually every part of the brain and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time".
#2 – Humans have five senses. I’m not referring to popularised the sixth sense where some humans have the ability to see famous ghosts but rather to the scientific fact that humans have up to as many as 21 senses. Our body is capable of amazing things which cannot be condensed into five senses. Additions to the list include pain, balance and temperature. In order for there to be a sense, there has to be sensor and each sensor correlates to each individual sensation our body experiences.
#3 – Using an electronic device can crash an airplane. A considerable amount of tests have been conducted by the FAA over the last 25 years evaluating the link between electronic devices and an airplane’s functionality. Nothing has ever happened.
The FAA has left it up to the airlines whether or not to allow passenger’s devices to be switched on. Most airlines, like Ryanair, enforce the rule during takeoff and landing so you will not interfere with the procedures of the cabin crew. It must be so irritating running through the safety procedures that could potentially save lives while your audience is sitting there playing Flappy Bird (who remembers that!).
#4 – A goldfish only has a ten second memory span. Various research collaborated from all over the world have presented evidence debunking this popular myth. In particular, researchers from the Institute of Technology in Israel trained fish through sound frequencies to respond in particular ways. Months later the fish responded the same ways when hearing the particular sound.
#5 – The Great Wall of China is the only manmade structure visible from space. An oldie but a goodie. Undoubtedly the wall is an extremely long structure, but it’s only 6 metres wide. Apollo 11 astronaut Sean Bean noted: “Apollo 12 astronaut, Alan Bean noted:
"The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white(clouds), some blue(ocean), patches of yellow(deserts), and once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible on this scale. In fact, when first leaving earth's orbit and only a few thousand miles away, no man-made object is visible at that point either."
Perhaps with the assistance of the arrows in the picture we can spot portions of the wall.
#6 Humans swallow an average of 8 spiders in their lifetime. This fallacy was originally coined by a lady called Lisa Holst in 1993 to demonstrate how people will believe anything they read – the very point of this article.
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