Ever started worrying after swallowing gum and fearing it might remain in your stomach forever? Well, guess what? Most of this knowledge was implanted in us as kids to trick us into doing something or stop us from doing it. Alas, some people carry such myths their whole lives and share them with others, continuing this vicious cycle.

In the golden age of misinformation, it’s more important than ever to separate fact from fiction as it can divide, confuse people and even cause danger to health.

We are on a mission to debunk them and have gathered some of the most mind-boggling misconceptions from a few Reddit discussions (one and two) that people should seriously stop buying into.

• Read More: 30 Myths That Have Been Debunked A Long Time Ago But Some People Still Fail To Catch Up

#1

If you cut taxes to the wealthy, those savings will trickle down to the lowly workers and make them better off financially.

Image credits: Fresh-Hedgehog1895

#2

The myth that if you’re a good person and work hard, you’ll get somewhere in life. It’s a flawed formula that doesn’t account for a myriad of variables.

Image credits: Petrichor_Paradise

#3

Poor people are ONLY poor because they are ALL lazy and made bad decisions.

Image credits: LucienPhenix

#4

That a drink concoction can detox your body.

Image credits: TuxandFlipper4eva

#5

The woman from the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit was frivolous and sue happy.

Image credits: Wandering_Lights

#6

Vaccines cause autism.

Image credits: Low-Positive9814

#7

“We’re not a company, we’re a family”

Image credits: wilfsland

#8

“Your call is very important to us”

Image credits: protectourwater

#9

That diamonds are both rare and a girl’s best friend.

Image credits: damian2000

#10

The Alpha Wolf theory or whatever it’s called. Wolf packs are just families

Image credits: AgentPastrana

#11

Undercover police have to tell you they are policemen when you ask them.

Image credits: Postraqw

#12

That being cold will give you a cold.

Image credits: OSeady

#13

Cutting hair makes it grow faster. Actually had an argument with a hairdresser about this. She insisted it was true but I said it wasn’t. Went looking for actual reasearch and found that hair is keratin and cutting it does not speed growth

Image credits: ClevelandWomble

#14

Drinking a bunch of juice that’s high in Vitamin C prevents or cures colds and flus

Image credits: llcucf80

#15

That “Flushable wipes” should actually be flushed.

Image credits: rigmarole111

#16

You have to wailt 24 hrs to report a missing person.

Image credits: footlettuce00

#17

Average humans only use 10% of their brain power.

Image credits: knifetrader

#18

The myth that Polygraphs, aka lie detectors, are accurate. Actual scientific assessments of the accuracy of polygraphs consistently shows little to no evidence that they are accurate despite their prevalence in use by law enforcement agencies for investigations and for security clearances. It can result in a lot of false positives, for example, of people being nervous about questioning and their physical stress being picked up as a lie by the person “analyzing” the output. (I’m using air quotes here since it’s one of those things where the analysis is more subjective than objective so is prone to human bias.)

Image credits: bodyknock

#19

That washing chicken before cooking makes it safer.

Image credits: Law-AC

#20

That working out will be the key to losing the pounds. Weight loss happens in the kitchen. Exercise helps somewhat but will do nothing if caloric intake isn’t reduced.

Image credits: apkcoffee

#21

That NASA paid millions for a pen that would write in space.

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Image credits: gamerbrian2023