Believe It or Not: 10 Myths You Might Believe Without Realizing

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Have you ever heard a classmate, friend, or family member say something that seems bizarre, yet they live by that belief? For example, do people eat x amount of spiders a night, or does chocolate milk come from brown cows? One user on a popular social media site asked, “What is something many people believe but is actually not true?” Here are the best responses.

1. Infamous Quotes

The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon causing large swaths of people to misremember the same thing. Alright, Star Wars fans. Do you know that the revered quote spoken by Darth Vader is not “Luke, I am your father,” but “No. I am your father.”

Another famous misremembered quote is from Apollo 13. Instead of the falsely remembered, “Houston, we have a problem.” The correct selection was, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

2. Everyone Has it All Figured Out

Teachers tell their students they’ll learn what they want to do with their lives when they’re older. While that’s a nice sentiment and calms several whining students stumbling through quarter-life crises, it’s not true.

Everyone has a different path and separate ways of dealing with life. For example, some people learn later in life what they want to do; some never figure it out, and some understand from an early age how to achieve the career and lifestyle they desire.

3. Banks Have Endless Money

Movies about bank robberies portray false narratives about how much money banks hold at any given time. For example, many users commented that their banks only carry between $200,000 and $500,000, not millions or billions, as some entertainment suggests. Another user wrote someone robbed three banks in their area and left with $6,500.

4. Sugar Rushes

Did you ever eat so much sugar as a child that your parents limited your intake? Proclaiming you get intense sugar rushes and can only eat one piece of candy daily? Well, sugar rushes are a myth.

Telling someone they will get a sugar rush acts as a placebo. So, kids who think consuming the chemical makeup in candy gives them spurts of energy are more likely to experience self-induced bursts of hyperactivity.

5. Black Cats Are Bad Luck

When I volunteered at an animal shelter, they ceased fostering and adopting black cats in October to prevent animal abuse.

According to the shelter, individuals looking to adopt black cats during spooky season underwent extra screening and questioning for the animal’s safety since many believe black cats bring bad luck.

6. The Customer is Always Right

If you’ve ever worked in food service or retail, your boss tells you the customer is always right. Of course, this statement serves to appease customers and reduce transaction time. However, some individuals live by this saying. While working in customer service, one user reported that if a customer retorts this line, the customer is usually wrong.

7. Age Equals Experience

This belief coincides with the thought that everyone has it all figured out. If you spend your entire life playing guitar, you might become a professional guitar player, but that doesn’t mean the musical prodigy who picked up a guitar a year ago is less talented. Talent and craft depend on the individual, personality, and much more than experience.

8. Christopher Columbus Discovered America

While a few states recognize the discovery of the Americas as Indigenous People’s Day, the government still regards ‘Columbus Day’ as a national holiday. Elementary schools continue to teach pupils that Columbus discovered America, perpetuating historically inaccurate information.

9. Brown Milk Comes From Brown Cows

Let’s revert to this one. All cows emit white milk. Chocolate, strawberry, and every milk flavor occur when other ingredients collide with white dairy milk.

10. Introverts Don’t Like Other People

How often have you heard someone say, “oh, they’re anti-social and hate people.” Being anti-social does not mean disliking social activity, and two, that is a fallacy. Introverted individuals need time to recover and recharge their social batteries; they might love people and crave human interaction, but they also need breaks to enjoy their own space.