10 Most Contagious Misconceptions

10 Most Contagious Misconceptions
10 Most Contagious Misconceptions

10 Most Contagious Misconceptions

When an entire sea of people tells you the same thing over and over again, you tend to take it as fact – even when you haven’t seen for yourself that it’s true. This is how we gain a lot of information: someone else – a teacher, parent, or peer – tells us something is true. We trust them, so we believe them. We don’t question them much, because they’ve been seemingly right about so many other things. If we tested everything we were told, it would take a long time to learn anything.

Even in

the scientific community, fact and fiction can easily be confused as new theories struggle to overtake old ones we’re all used to believing are true. When religion and science mingle, they tend to clash, as do myth and reality. As smart as many people are, even the smartest often latch onto misconceptions and never learn the real truth, or, if they learn it, they disregard it. Our brains are wired to pay attention to information that affirms what we believe and to toss out what doesn’t .This is why so many of us are lifelong conservatives or liberals. It’s why so many of us can hold cognitively dissonant beliefs at the same time (Americans are famous for holding contradictory beliefs, defying basic logic).

Here are some of the most pervasive misconceptions in our culture:

10You Need Eight Glasses of Water a Day to be Healthy.

Drink that water! Dork.

9Evolution is Just a “Theory,” Which Means Mainstream Scientists Doubt It.

Evolution. It’s a fact.

8The Color Red Makes Bulls Mad.

Bulls don’t hate red. They hate you.

7That Jerk Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake.”

Marie a real A!

6Mormons are Polygamists.

Polygamy. It’s back and better than ever. Soon to be legal in the USA. You’ll see.

5Columbus Discovered the Land Now Known as the United States.

Chris Columbus. Think what you want. But, nobody discovered America after he did.

4The Buddha was Obese and Buddhists Worship Him as a God.

Buddha was a skinny Zen master.

3Napoleon Bonaparte was an Insecure Shorty.

Napoleon. Still a dick.

2We Have Five Senses.

Only 5 senses. Guess again.

1Satan Rules Hell.

The Devil loves List Land!