Every once in a while, you'll hear a statistic so striking you can hardly
believe it's true -chances are its a load of rubbish.
So, here are five of the most repeated urban myths, according to US
website Cracked. com
1. You accidentally swallow about eight spiders a year in your sleep
Why it's not true:
Spiders have a natural instinct to stay alive and crawling into the heavy-
breathing hot, wet mouths of animals goes strongly against this.
Who started it:
Back in 1993 a columnist for PC Professional named Lisa Holst decided to
prove that you could make up anything on the internet and people would
believe it.
She did this by making up a set of facts that were utterly ridiculous, the
spider myth among them (which itself was taken from a collection of
insect folklore that dates back to the 1950s, and emailing her findings
around the world.
2. You Only Use 10% of Your Brain (but if you were only less lazy or stupid you could use more)
Why it's not true:
The parts of the brain are specialized, so trying to use all of it at once
isn't going to make you any smarter.
That would be like trying to become a better writer by striving to use all
the keys on your keyboard in every sentence.
Who started it?
A series of neurologists over the past few hundred years figured out that
a human can survive when parts of the brain are removed.
Over time, this was misinterpreted to mean that the brain uses little of its
potential, and thus the 10 per cent statistic was born.
3. Men think about sex every seven seconds
Why is it a load of rubbish?
If men thought about sex every seven seconds it would be hard to get
anything done. Experts estimate that 30 per cent of men don't think about
sex during the day at all.
There are variants of this myth but none of them are based on any actual
research. After all, how would they even arrive at such a number?
Hook electrodes up to a guy's head and have him walk around for a week,
counting how many times the sex lobe lights up?
Who Started It?
No-one knows
4. You Must Wait 30 Minutes After Eating Before Swimming
Why is it a load of rubbish?
Because you're not a Gremlin. As you may have already guessed, water
does not, in fact, bear properties that form a cramp of death, should you
get in the water after eating.
Getting into the water after eating will have no more effect on your body
than going for a walk.
Who started it?
This one actually comes from an old wives tale that slowly became popular
over the years. Supposedly, your stomach is using oxygen to digest food
that your muscles need to swim.
In actuality, the amount of oxygen your body needs to swim is more than
satisfied, whether or not you've eaten recently.
5. The suicide rate jumps at Christmas
Why is it a load of rubbish?
Actually, the suicide rate goes down significantly. Why? While it's
depressing as hell to be alone on Christmas, the truth is most of us aren't.
It's just hard to commit suicide when there's people around constantly
trying to get you to wear ugly sweaters.
Who started it?
In this case, no one fooled us more than ourselves.
It's what they call confirmation bias; we decide ahead of time that people
should get depressed over the holidays, so when we hear somebody killed
themselves over Christmas, we assume the season was the reason.
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