If you're a human, I'm willing to bet you grew up believing some random myth that, once you became an adult, realized was actually totally false. (It happens to literally all of us, so don't worry.)
But believe it or not, sometimes people continue to believe myths well into adulthood. So, when Reddit user u/Eichberg posed the question, "What is an annoying myth people still believe?" to the AskReddit community, they came back with some kinda shocking results. Here are the top-voted responses.
1. MYTH: The Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure visible from space.
"First of all, it's not (visible from space with the naked eye), and second, other ones are."
TRUTH: According to NASA, "The visible wall theory was shaken after China's own astronaut, Yang Liwei, said he couldn’t see the historic structure. There was even talk about rewriting textbooks that espouse the theory, a formidable task in the Earth’s most populous nation."
2. MYTH: If you touch a baby bird, its mother will abandon it because of the smell.
"(Most) birds actually have a very crappy sense of smell."
—grmidnight
TRUTH: According to Scientific American, "This prevalent belief that the scent of humans leads to nest abandonment is 'for the birds' and denies basic bird biology and animal parents’ innate drive to nurture their broods.”
3. MYTH: You have to wait 24 hours before filing a missing persons report.
"In fact, by federal law, missing juveniles must be listed as missing within two hours of the report to local law enforcement agencies, no matter how recently they've gone missing, unless they are located within that time."
TRUTH: According to the State of California Department of Justice, "There is NO waiting period for reporting a person missing. All California police and sheriffs' departments must accept any report, including a report by telephone, of a missing person, including runaways, without delay, and will give priority to the handling of the report."
4. MYTH: Cracking your knuckles makes them bigger/gives you arthritis.
TRUTH: According to Harvard Health Publishing, "The 'pop' of a cracked knuckle is caused by bubbles bursting in the synovial fluid — the fluid that helps lubricate joints. The bubbles pop when you pull the bones apart, either by stretching the fingers or bending them backward, creating negative pressure."
TRUTH: According to the Economic Times, "Our goldfish can actually remember things for at least five months."
6. THE MYTH: You can "detox" your body from toxins and parasites by drinking certain teas.
"Repeated diarrhea and frequent urination doesn't indicate toxins leaving your body; your liver and kidneys do the job. If your liver is not functioning or you have a kidney disorder, obviously you need help, but it won't be teas that someone on Instagram is boasting about."
THE TRUTH: According to Vox, "The truth is unless you’re a heroin addict or you’re at risk of alcohol poisoning, you probably don’t need a 'detox.'"
TRUTH: According to the USGS, "No, bats are not blind. Bats have small eyes with very sensitive vision, which helps them see in conditions we might consider pitch black. They don’t have the sharp and colorful vision humans have, but they don’t need that. Think of bat vision as similar to a dark-adapted Mr. Magoo (a cartoon character with very poor vision)."
8. MYTH: MSG — a lot of people still believe it's basically poison.
"It's no more harmful than regular salt."
TRUTH: According to the Seattle Times, "As it was in the 1960s, today the main source of MSG in America is processed food. 'One of the most unfortunate things that MSG does is make really terrible food taste really good,' said culinary historian Sarah Lohman. 'This is where we start to get the association in America that MSG is bad for you, when it’s really just hanging out with food that’s bad for you.'"
9. MYTH: That you get warts from frogs/toads.
"Warts come from the human papilloma virus and come from contact with the virus through broken skin. It is a human-specific virus and cannot be spread through different species."
—mtn-cat
TRUTH: According to the Burke Museum, "There are no amphibians that give you warts. This myth has been around for a long time and is probably related to the fact that many frogs and toads have warty looking bumps on their skin. These are glands and do not secrete anything that can cause you to have warts! Although some skin secretions of some amphibians may irritate your skin and cause a rash. Warts are actually caused by viruses."
10. MYTH: Einstein was a bad student who failed math.
TRUTH: According to the Washington Post, Einstein's "early teachers did not find him especially talented even though he got high marks. [...] He did fine in math, but he did flunk the entrance exam to the Zurich Polytechnic when he first took it — when he was about 1 1/2 years away from graduating high school, at age 16, and hadn’t had a lot of French."
11. MYTH: People in the Middle Ages believed the Earth was flat.
"The ancient Greeks knew that shit was false. The myth of the flat Earth was a post-Romanticism fancy in pop culture, not a serious scholarly movement. That line from Men in Black has pissed me off ever since I learned the truth."
TRUTH: According to Newsweek, "'No educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the Earth was flat,' historian Jeffrey Burton Russell wrote in 1997. 'A round Earth appears at least as early as the sixth century B.C. with Pythagoras, who was followed by Aristotle, Euclid, and Aristarchus, among others in observing that the Earth was a sphere.'"
TRUTH: According to Live Science, "Bulls, along with all other cattle, are color-blind to red. Thus, the bull is likely irritated not by the color, but by the cape’s movement as the matador whips it around."
13. MYTH: Tryptophan in turkey makes you sleepy during Thanksgiving.
"No. Chicken has more tryptophan than turkey, and we only get sleepy on Thanksgiving because we eat so much."
TRUTH: According to the New York Times, "Tryptophan is an amino acid that is a precursor for the brain chemical serotonin, which is associated with healthy sleep. But there is no more tryptophan in turkey than in other common meats like chicken and beef. Other foods, including nuts and cheeses, contain more. You might be extra tired after your meal, but don’t blame the turkey; it could just be that you overate."
TRUTH: According to Britannica, "Napoleon’s death certificate estimate that his height when he died was between 5’2” and 5’7” (1.58 and 1.7 meters). The discrepancy is often explained by the disparity between the 19th-century French inch, which was 2.71 cm, and the current inch measurement, which is 2.54 cm. Sources consequently estimate that Napoleon was probably closer to 5’6” or 5’7” than to 5’2”. Although the range may seem short by 21st-century standards, it was typical in the 19th century, when most Frenchmen stood between 5’2” and 5’6”."
TRUTH: According to the Mayo Clinic, "Colds are caused by viruses, so you can't catch a cold from going outside with wet hair. And wet hair won't make you more attractive to germs. People often associate going outside with wet hair with getting sick because exposure to germs is more likely when you go outside. In reality, the common cold is transmitted through bodily fluids, such as when people who are sick sneeze, cough or blow their nose."
TRUTH: According to Scientific American, "The very act of cutting may make hair appear thicker for a short time. A human hair shaft is like a pencil or javelin that tapers at the end. So when a razor slices away the tip, it may appear that the remaining hair, and subsequent stubble, is thicker or darker than it was before the cut. Those short hairs, sticking straight up from their follicles, may even appear coarser."
17. MYTH: A higher tax rate means your entire income is taxed at that rate.
"Oh boy, this is a big one. I hear people all the time that say, 'I don’t want a raise ‘cause it’ll put me in a higher tax bracket, and I’ll make less money than I do now because they’ll take more taxes.' Like, no. They only take that percentage from the ADDITIONAL money you’ll be making. You’ll still be making more money!"
TRUTH: According to Insider, "Basically, if you start earning more and move up tax brackets, the 'marginal' amount — or the money in the higher tax bracket — is taxed at a higher rate. NOT THE ENTIRE AMOUNT YOU EARN."
18. MYTH: Companies "can't" say that you were fired, or why you were fired, "by law."
"They can; they usually just don't!"
TRUTH: According to the Balance Careers, "There are no federal laws restricting what information an employer can — or cannot — disclose about former employees. And while most states have laws about what employers can legally disclose, and to whom, many do allow employers to share details about job performance, responsibilities, and professional conduct."
19. MYTH: Driving with interior dome lights on at night is illegal.
TRUTH: According to ABC30, "It's not illegal to drive with interior lights on,' said Sgt. Brian Pennings with the California Highway Patrol. 'The Vehicle Code specifically says that it's illegal for you to add aftermarket lighting to the inside of your vehicle, but it does not specifically prohibit you from using your dome light or map light during the hours of darkness.'"
20. MYTH: And finally, we only use 10% of our brains.
TRUTH: According to Scientific American, "'It turns out that we use virtually every part of the brain, and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time,' says neurologist Barry Gordon at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. 'Let's put it this way: the brain represents three percent of the body's weight and uses 20 percent of the body's energy.'
Note: Some entries have been edited for length and/or clarity.