People Are Sharing Myths That Just Won't Go Away, And You Might Recognize A Few Of These

    "There are so many myths about the Middle Ages in general. It happened over multiple centuries. No 'average' can accurately convey exactly what life was like then."

    Larry Fitzmaurice
    by Larry Fitzmaurice

    BuzzFeed Staff

    This post contains discussion of mental health issues.

    It happens all the time: You hear someone repeat a commonly held belief or historical anecdote that simply isn't true, at all. You might even think to yourself, "Why do people keep believing this stuff?"

    Closeup of a man in a light-pink hoodie shrugging with his arms out
    Seva Levytskyi / Getty Images/EyeEm

    U/Tech_Guru_96 recently asked the people of Reddit, "What's a stupid myth that's still floating around?" Next time you're around someone who brings one of these up, feel free to pull this article out:

    1. "Creating a Facebook status that says 'I do not give Facebook permission to use my photos or likeness' or anything of that ilk."

    —u/Lopsided_Platypus_81

    2. "Touching a baby bird will make the parents abandon it. Birds don’t have a good sense of smell. It’s worse than ours. They also love their babies and wouldn’t care if it smells weird. Leave fledglings alone unless they’re in a dangerous situation, but if they are in a dangerous situation, get them out of it. And if you see a baby bird without feathers outside of a nest, place it back in the nest or take it to your nearest wildlife rehabilitation center."

    —u/LemonFly4012

    Two hands holding a baby bird
    A.martin Uw Photo / Getty Images

    3. "That it'll take, like, seven years to digest gum if you swallow it. I don't know where that even came from."

    —u/Prof-Finklestink

    4. "That you have to wait 24–48 hours before filing a missing person report."

    —u/SuvenPan

    5. "Blood is bright blue until it hits oxygen, then magically turns red."

    —u/UniversalHammer71

    6. "That you can be promoted into a lower net income because of tax brackets."

    —u/TrooperJohn

    7. "Vaccines cause autism."

    —u/rainbowarmpit

    A doctor administrating a vaccine into a person's arm
    D3sign / Getty Images

    8. "That humans only use 10% of their brains. Idk where this could've even come from. Why would ANY animal evolve an extremely expensive organ they only use 10% of???"

    —u/Sahdis

    9. "That MSG is bad for you. Most people believe it, and those people probably still have it at least once a week without knowing. It's much better for you than salt."

    —u/kiemac

    10. "People are poisoning Halloween candy, or putting pins and razor blades in it."

    —u/Crickson1

    A man applying shaving cream to his face and smiling
    Yuri Arcurs Peopleimages.com / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    12. "That the hymen is a virginity detector. Hymens do NOT work that way! They often stretch rather than break during sex (lots of adult women who have had a lot of sex still have intact hymens), and the hymen can also break from non-sexual activities like riding a bike or a horse, during exercise, and using a tampon or menstrual cup."

    —u/StrawberriesRGood4U

    13. "That daddy long legs spiders are the most VENOMOUS SPIDER IN THE WORLD, but their fangs can’t pierce human skin. I still hear this all the time, and I hate being a smartypants, but I usually have to chime in."

    —u/SugarReef

    14. "That schizophrenia means having multiple personalities. It doesn’t. Some people hear voices with it; others don’t. The voices are NOT personalities. These people are thinking of Dissociative Identity Disorder."

    —u/Agent101g

    15. "That certain teas detox your body — or that your body even needs to be detoxed."

    —u/prof_dynamite

    16. "That Europeans used a lot of spices to cover up the taste of rotting meat. Not only is it a myth, it's a really dumb one. Spices used to be incredibly expensive. A single restaurant-sized container of black pepper could cost the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars in the 1400s. If you had a $10 steak that was going bad, are you going to coat it in $400 worth of black pepper to cover up the taste, or are you going to just buy a new $10 steak? So, where does the myth come from? Wealthy medieval Europeans used obscene amounts of spices in their dishes, such that they'd be nearly inedible to modern palates...just to show off. Henry VIII wanted you to know that he could afford to put $900 worth of nutmeg and allspice in your dessert."

    —u/tunaman808

    A rendering of Henry VIII and his court
    Wynnter / Getty Images

    17. "That it's possible to hold in period blood, like pee."

    —u/digi_art_gurl

    18. "Using dish soap will strip the seasoning from your cooking dish. This was true back when lye was a common ingredient in dish soaps, but it's been gone from all major dish soap brands for 30 years now."

    —u/QuantityPure7224

    A person scrubbing and washing a pan
    0shut0 / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    19. "That the age of 30 was considered to be 'old' in the Middle Ages. Nope. The average age of death was dragged down by the infant mortality rate. If you survived past infancy, you could reasonably expect to live until your 60s or 70s. There are so many myths about the Middle Ages in general. It happened over multiple centuries. No 'average' can accurately convey exactly what life was like then."

    —u/NiamhHA

    20. "Labia size is linked to how many sexual partners a person has had."

    —u/knotjust

    Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.