People have been sharing the ‘dumb myths’ that are still widely believed and these 27 are proper head-shakers

It’s an odd thing that with more information available to us than ever before, the more people tend to believe the dumbest of myths (flat earthers, anti-vaxxers, people who still think Brexit was a good idea, that sort of thing).

And we mention this after JoeyDotnot went viral with this question on AskReddit.

‘What’s the dumbest myth people today believe?’

And we’ve read all the answers so you don’t have to. Well, quite a few of them, and these 27 are proper head shakers.

1.

‘That humans only use 10% of their brain. This is false, regardless of how those who proclaim this myth seemingly demonstrate that it is in fact true.’
MatthewWakeman

2.

‘I remember the myth that gum takes 7 YEARS to fully pass through your digestive system.’
QuandiliusDinglebop

3.

‘My dad had this guy helping him out (think Big Box store DIY curb ready helper) who told him “If you sleep with your hair wet, you will bleed out of your mouth”… and he was 110% sure that was fact.

‘We were both just confused and bewildered at this statement. What the hell had this guy witnessed?!’
bitew41489

4.

‘I had somebody tell me that it was really windy the other day, because there was a meteor that passed close to Earth.’
Dont-Fear-The-Raeper

5.

‘Black belts have to register their fists as weapons… I can’t believe I was dumb enough to fall for that.’
gorox47927

6.

‘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.’
merofo8329

7.

‘There are dumber ones out there, but the one I, as an estate lawyer, deal with constantly is the idea that there needs to be a “reading” of the will, where the family all gather and the lawyer reads it aloud to them for the first time. We don’t do that, we just mail everyone their own copy if they want it.

‘It’s a really stubbornly persistent one because people continue to see scenes of it in movies and TV shows, where it’s used for some big dramatic reveal. I’ve even had irate beneficiaries insist that the administration of the estate can’t be “official” until there’s a reading.

‘Way, way back, like 150 years ago or so, I believe we used to do something like that at times because you couldn’t exactly presume literacy on the part of the beneficiaries, but now we feel it’s a pretty safe bet that you can either read it or find someone who can.’
PigHaggerty

8.

“Lie detectors” as a literal thing.

‘There’s a reason they aren’t admissible as evidence in court in most places.’
bitew41489

9.

‘That magnetic jewelry / healing will cure just about anything. A dude named Mesmer the 1780 came up with the idea, and it have been debunked many times – yet it’s still a billion dollar industry. Fun fact – the word “mesmerized” is related to him.’
rolis20544

10.

‘That Einstein failed his grade school math class. It was the subject of a Ripley’s Believe It or Not column in 1935 and Einstein himself refuted the article. In primary school he had been at the top of class and by 15 he had mastered differential and integral calculus.’
rolis20544

11.

‘Had a cab driver insisting that the reactor meltdown at Fukushima was a failed Chinese attack on the US. The plan was to superheat the rods so they’d burn into the ground, through the center of the Earth, and come out in America and irradiate it.’
DavidSLadd

12.

‘That you eat spiders in your sleep.

‘Spider will not knowingly walk into a preditor’s mouth. They can sense both the heartbeat, heat and noise from humans. All things that would alert them not to go into our mouth.’
messeboy

13.

‘If you drop a penny off a skyscraper, it will eventually fall fast enough to puncture someone’s skull.

‘By that logic, raindrops would hurt like a bitch or straight up kill you. Not to mention hail.’
UnvwevweOsas

14.

‘So many people think Narwhals are mythical.’
loxisi5751