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It never ceases to amaze me the many things that lodge in our collective unconscious that simply aren’t true. We just like them, so we keep repeating them over and over. Recently, I found some of these myths, one of which my stickler-for-the-truth Trivia Superman husband told me and was shocked to learn wasn’t true.
Here’s a few of them:
1) JFK told the Germans that he was a jelly doughnut during his famous speech in Berlin. I can’t tell you how many times I’d heard this one. The story goes that he said, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” intending to mean, “I am a Berliner,” but Berliners are jelly doughnuts, too, and if you put “ein” before the word Berliner, you’re talking about the doughnut. So JFK was secretly laughed at for his faux pas. Except that he wasn’t. No German laughed at that during that speech because there was nothing wrong with what JFK said. You can read the whole explanation here. Oh, and do you know where the idea that he misspoke originated? From a novel. Yes, a NOVEL. People have got to stop believing what they read in novels, I swear. 
2) Fidel Castro had a chance at being a baseball player in the major leagues, but he didn’t get picked in the tryouts. Wouldn’t history be different if he had? Yes, history would be REALLY different. Except that it didn’t happen, so the point is kind of moot. My husband told me this one, and he was surprised to learn it wasn’t true.
3) Most of us only use ten percent of our brains. It’s simply not true. It’s one of the many misconceptions surrounding scientific research and how it’s interpreted.
4) People believed the earth was flat up through the Middle Ages. Nope, they didn’t, not educated people anyway. For example, the pic to the left, of people circling the earth as a sphere, appeared in a 12th century manuscript. So no one was skeptical about Columbus’s voyage for fear that he would sail off the edge of the earth. They just weren’t as stupid as we seem to think.
This stuff fascinates me. These days I’m almost afraid to repeat an item of conventional wisdom or a widely repeated story until I make sure it’s not an urban myth! Sometimes the story was so good that I’m disappointed to find out it was good because, well, it was a story!
Do you find urban myths fascinating? Are you disappointed or relieved when you learn they’re not true? Can you remember an urban myth or item of conventional wisdom that you subsequently found out wasn’t true? Do you have snopes.com (the urban legend site) in your bookmarks? (Obviously I’m a little crazy for this stuff, since I do.)
65 Comments on “Truth or Myth”
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If such urban myth seems “real” to me, then I’m okay with it. Though some u-myths are “roll your eyes” ones, but others are interesting and could be “real”. U-myths just add some “appeal” to them. It makes a place/person/etc. more “believable”.
For the most part, I’m all for a cynical twist, but if it is “real”, then I’ll “believe” it.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 2:58 am.
I always love the ones about serial killers, robbers, etc., that are really just moral tales. It reminds me that if there are no stories for us, we’ll make some up!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:22 am.
One that really annoys me is people who actually believe that eating chocolate will give you pimples — or worsen them! Several studies have come around to disprove that, but, still, I hear people going over and over, “If I eat a bar, I’m going to break out.” It makes me want to punch them!
A little recent source! http://theconversation.edu.au/mondays-medical-myth-chocolate-causes-acne-6934
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 3:29 am.
Thanks for the link, B! I was delighted when they started saying that dark chocolate was good for you. You know me and chocolate!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:23 am.
It is fascinating. I’m so gullible I’ll believe anything I’m told as truth.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 3:48 am.
I used to be more gullible, but after having a few of these disproved, I started checking everything on Snopes.com.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:24 am.
I love snopes! Skeptic.com, too. I’ve become a lot more skeptical as I get older. It used to be that, if it didn’t directly impact my immediate life, I didn’t really think about it. It never occurred to me that models were airbrused on magazine covers until someone told me when I was about 26. I don’t read fashion magazines so I never thought about it. Now I am much more skeptical of anything like “conventional wisdom” because I’ve found out over the years that so much of it is bunk.
Homeopathic medicine – the “medicine” is purified water with the supposedly active ingredient so diluted as to not even be there anymore – the homeopath relies on water’s “memory” of the ingredient. That was a bit of a shocker considering how much of an industry the whole thing is.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 4:33 am.
Ooh, LIz, I didn’t know about Skeptic.com! I’ll have to check it out!
Yes, I find myself skeptical of a lot of things, too. I like to have double-blind studies behind my science. *G*
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:25 am.
A while back (in another therad), Brent asked if I had any constructive tips or advice for our users. I don’t have much to offer for the other users, but since I’m heavily involved in web development on the editorial side, I can at least offer some advice to CBG’s editorial staff in the way of some questions that would go a long way to helping you identify the strengths and weaknesses of this website.* How much revenue is being generated from your website (banner ads, etc.)? Are you monetizing other areas of your online areas (e.g., e-newsletters, podcasts, videos)?* Do you sell products from your website? If so, are revenues up or down compared to previous months/years?* Are you getting regular online reports from your web team (e.g., Omniture reports)? If not, why not?* Why do visitors come to your site? Why does your site exist, and what do you offer on your website that your visitors cannot receive from the print magazine, or from other websites?* How much traffic (page views, unique visitors, total visits) are you getting on a monthly basis? * How is this traffic trending compared to last month? How is it trending compared to last year?* What is the average amount of time a visitor spends with your website? Is this amount increasing or decreasing month over month/year over year?* What was your best month in the past year/two years?* What are your most popular pages for the past month/past year? How does this compare to previous months/years?* Who are your most popular writers/columnists/contributors to the website? How often are they posting new content? Do you have a budget or payment plan that encourages/incentivizes your top contributors to write frequently? Are you actively soliciting content from new writers as well?* Do you have areas of your website that have not been updated in many months? If so, either update them or consider phasing them out. If your print columnists are not contributing to the website, offer them incentives to do so or else shut down those online areas.* Where are your visitors coming from? Are they mostly U.S. based? What percentage of your traffic comes from overseas? Do you have a strategy to attract more traffic from overseas?* Are you familiar with other websites and what features those other sites have? Do you regularly contact other editors to learn best practices, as well as strategies on how to ensure CBGxtra’s web development is made a priority within the corporate hierarchy? * What do you do better on your website than your competitors do, and vice versa?* What are your top three priorities for the website? What would you like the website to look like six months from now? Do you have sufficient resources and staffing to make those priorities a reality?
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 9:26 pm.
I’m seriously skeptical of homeopathic medicine, too. Once this woman in my class told me that I should try some homeopathic nasal sprays for my allergies. When I checked it out because I knew she’d keep hounding me about it, I found out that they were using arsenic!!!! in the sprays. It’s apparently quite common for them to use arsenic in homeopathy, too, because there’s something about a little poison helping the problem. Then, I started reading the stories about people who died from arsenic poisoning. I can’t believe people belive that bunk.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:57 pm.
I loved the one of people being found in a hotel bath tub bleeding after being drugged, having meatball surgery to have a kidney stolen from them and sold on the black market. Really? Name names.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 7:11 am.
I know!! It’s funny how no one can ever name names.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:26 am.
my sis sends me copious emails on the wonders and dangers of regular foods. “onions are deadly after being cut!” scoff scoff is my reply.
the one that gets me is more of an “old wives tale”.
That going outside with wet hair will make you sick. nope. viruses make you sick.
wet hair in winter just makes your hair frozen!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 8:03 am.
It’s funny, Kathy, because I always thought the wet hair one was spurious, too. I’ve gone outside with wet hair (winter, summer, I don’t care) for years. Haven’t got a cold from it yet!
I think some of these are holdovers from the days when people didn’t know how sickness came about.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:28 am.
I also find this stuff fascinating and I do have Snopes on my bookmark bar. great stuff.
I guess it depends on the legend if I’m disappointed or not.
I remember my cousin telling me that putting toothpaste on a pimple would dry it up. Not. Bummer.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 8:07 am.
That IS a bummer! That would be a great tip if it worked!
Although I use toothpaste all the time to polish my silver jewelry, which really does work. It’s probably bad on the silver, but these are fairly inexpensive Thai rings that tarnish quickly, so I just brush a little toothpaste on them, and I’m good to go!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:29 am.
I read in a book that Sadam Hussein wrote 4 romance novels. I found one that was purportedly written by him: Zabibah and the King.
Bizarre.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 8:13 am.
Haven’t heard that one! I looked it up, and it’s true!!! Very bizarre.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:53 am.
I too am pretty skeptical and don’t believe most of what I read. The internet is too full of nonsense to believe a lot of what is out there. Having a daughter skilled in Photoshop also makes me question most of what I see too!
The conventional wisdom that I was most disappointed to learn was not true is the turkey/tryptophan connection.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 8:27 am.
Kez, I know–the photoshop stuff is something you really have to watch. It’s endemic.
LOL about the turkey/tryptophan connection! I didn’t even know it wasn’t true until you said that and I looked it up.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:55 am.
Unfortunately, I’ve become quite the cynic. I do have snopes as a favorite on my list because I get SO many inflammatory e-mails, the I always want to confirm them before I either pass them on or respond to let the sender know they’re fake. Especially this time of year with elections coming up…my e-mail box gets filled to the rafters with ‘this candidate said this’ and ‘that candidate did that’ and I hate it. I’m 42. I’m relatively intelligent. I can research the candidates myself and determine who, in my opinion, would best serve my needs in public office. I don’t need an instigator telling me why I should NOT vote for this person over that person…I want to know what the candidates will do for me and WHY they think they deserve my vote. Just my humble opinion….
*steps off soap box*
Then, there are the ‘studies’ that are cropping up. For example, post partum depression causes your kids to be short. Did you know?? Yep, people are PAID to do those studies. Everything will kill you, cause diabetes or give you cancer, etc.
My thoughts–anything in moderation is fine, everything in excess is bad. DUH…
I’m obviously in the wrong business…I just provided that little nugget for free. LOL 
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:23 am.
Julie, a woman after my own heart!!
The minute information is couched in a incendiary e-mail, I get suspicious. I like to know the facts–if I can, when I can.
As for studies, it’s frustrating that they can’t come to a consensus about stuff like caffeine, yet my doctors persist in saying “You should watch your caffeine.” So I just do what I want. *G* I would say that I believe everything in moderation, except that I DO drink a whole lot of coffee. *G*
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:58 am.
I love the coffee too, Sabrina. I just drink the leaded in the mornings and the unleaded in the afternoons.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:59 pm.
Being the shortest one in my family, and very short by societal standards, I actually sent my mom a link to that study and told her that there is one more thing to blame her for! Never mind that I look my cousins in the eye and that there is a “short gene” that runs though the family. I don’t view that “study” as scientific.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 11:20 am.
No kidding, tell that to my 6’4″ son…
God only knows how tall he would be if I had not had PPD. 
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:57 pm.
I hesitate to say that the older people in my family are constantly sending my political “stories” that are so outrageous a sane person would never believe them. So I politely send back the snopes link to show them how far off base they are, but that doesn’t stop them.
And I’m with Julie. The stuff candidates will say, or snippets they will make into commercials and think we will believe them is so off-putting.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:39 am.
Julia, I know what you mean! And that’s why I have snopes.com on my bookmarks–to counter the nonsense out there!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:58 am.
For years I believed that the daddy long legs spider was the deadliest spider in the world but its fangs were too short to do pierce the skin. Apparently it isn’t true but it didn’t stop my phobia of them developing as a child.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 9:47 am.
Aw, it’s a shame you got a phobia from a myth! Do you still have a phobia of them?
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 10:00 am.
Sadly, yes. It was formed during my formative years so not much I can do. It has gotten worse over the years.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 3:44 pm.
Urban legends have had me rolling my eyes since I was bombarded by the stupid “Neiman Marcus cookie recipe” BS in the 80s – by fax. Good cookie recipe, though.
Snopes has been in my head for years as soon as they launched and became a wonderful source for trying to debunk the Internet (a losing battle, I know)
I find it fascinating how they would start. I would love to meet someone who started one and ask what the inspiration was for sending it out.. and give them a little hat tip for a well played prank.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 10:58 am.
I know! I think Snopes has been able sometimes to trace a myth to its source, but not always.
The interesting thing about urban myths is that sometimes they go back for centuries. An old myth is retooled for the modern age and then presented again!
I have a recipe for Neiman Marcus Cake that my grandma always made. It was called that because, as she put it, “it’s so rich.” And it is. Also deplorably delicious.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:01 pm.
I had one person tell me that she wouldn’t believe peer reviewed science that was on snopes. On the plus side I don’t get any of those crazy urban legend emails from her anymore.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:58 pm.
True or not, it doesn’t stop you becoming a member of the Flat Earth Society: http://theflatearthsociety.org !
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 11:18 am.
Fascinating! I read their mission statement and I STILL don’t get if they’re serious or a spoof or what!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:03 pm.
I guess we believe what we want to believe. I have a fondness for conspiracy theories. My two favorites are back in the mid ’90′s, when the FED started putting electronic strips in $20 bills, some thought that this would be a way to track someone personally. Never mind that security cameras are so pervasive, that we have no need for electronic tracking devices via cash anymore. My second favorite is that when air force jets fly over and leave the contrails, they’er actually dropping chemicals to brainwash us all. Yeah, like our atmosphere won’t scrub concentrated chemicals dropped in the ionosphere. I always thought those two were funny.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 11:25 am.
I hadn’t heard either of those. Those are great!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:04 pm.
Oh, and by the way, Hubby is a big fan of conspiracy theories, too. He always tells me some of the more interesting ones.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:05 pm.
I check snopes.com regularly. And I’m sad to say that I’ve discovered some our our family “history” is actually a myth. For years and years I heard that my husband’s grandfather received a bronze medal in the hurdles in the Olympics in the 1920s. Well, turns out that =all participants= received a medal that is bronze-like. Yeah. He actually didn’t medal. We also thought, on my side, that we had a famous poet ancestor. But my aunt who is researching all that stuff discovered it’s not true.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 11:26 am.
My cousin recently discovered that my ancestor was an earl. Except that when I looked at her line of relations, I thought I saw a flaw. So I keep forgetting to ask her more details. I really want to know if I’m descended from an earl!
And the irony is that the connection isn’t on my grandmother’s “descended from genteel folk” side but on my hardscrabble grandfather “worked-in-the-oil-fields” side.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:07 pm.
I do a fair amount of genealogy, so I’ve heard all sorts of stories from people about their family stories. My dh’s grandmother used to tell everyone that her mother was Samuel Clemen’s neice. I was skeptical when I heard it because I knew that my dh’s ggrandmother had been born in Cornwall. Just by checking a Samuel Clemens’ biography, my dh learned that it was impossible because his neice was born in 1885 and died when she was 8 – all in the United States and almost 20 years before his ggrandmother was born.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:52 pm.
Another interesting post from the Trivia Queen/Goddess. Yes, I have Snopes on my favorites. I use it to check up on all those fascinating but hard to believe stories my friends dump in my inbox.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:34 pm.
I think all my friends are wise to the stories (or maybe they’re just all writers and know how easily such stories evolve), because I never get that stuff from them. Fortunately!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 2:18 pm.
I’ve always been a skeptic. I think I was 8 when I stopped believing weathermen, mostly because I hated wearing snowpants, boots, coat, etc, to school just because some guy on tv said that it was going to snow and didn’t.
After having sent snopes links in response to urban legend emails, I don’t get those kind of emails anymore. I’m SO glad. It’s amazing what people believe in this day and age.
I’m all about common sense. For example, I think you should eat all the vitamin and minerals that your body needs. I don’t think that most supplements work, and I believe that they carry health risks. More often than not, science backs me up. A pill isn’t going to cure your problems. Look at the study where 24,000 people participated, people who took calcium supplements were 86% more likely to have a heart attack than the people who didn’t take calcium. Add that the type of calcium in supplements isn’t absorbed by your body well, that my grandma calcified one of her kidneys with calcium supplements, had numerous stents placed, died of congestive heart failure, and all 3 of her siblings had heart disease, I’m never taking a calcium supplement. Instead I’m using diet and exercise to strengthen my bones. Even though, I’m a redhead, I get Vitamin D from the sun. When I walk the kids to school, I forgo sunscreen on my arms or legs – never my face, though. Forty minutes between 8-9 am two-three times a week, isn’t going to cause skin cancer. Here’s the link to the results of the study. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120523200752.htm
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:36 pm.
Janae, I would agree with you on the calcium, except for two things. One, I had gastric bypass and they said that you don’t metabolize calcium the same after the surgery, so we had to take supplements. I get lots of calcium in my food, so I didn’t take any for a while, and I started having joint problems. When I went back to the calcium, the joint problems went away. Later, I found out that some people take calcium for joint issues. I think I may have to be one of those people, even though I hate, hate, hate taking them.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 2:22 pm.
Well once you stop believing in Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy, you pretty much think everything is bogus… Like, is Paul McCartney really dead, or was that a made up landing on the moon, all staged by NASA… The first one is a myth and the second one, well I watched that with my own eyes, so it had to be true… SO if I see it with my own eyes or hear it with my own hears, I believe, but you have to prove it to me…and thank god for SNOPES.COM.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:51 pm.
That reminds me of the Elvis hoaxes over the years. Like the one about him not really being dead, but living a quiet life in Tweed, Ontario.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 1:00 pm.
I had heard different places, but never Tweed, Ontario?
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 2:18 pm.
He’s in Tweed wearing his blue suede shoes. *G*
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 2:24 pm.
I grew up about 3 hours from Tweed, and that was always the story around here. I am sure there are quite a few small towns that Elvis ‘retired’ to. LOL!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 4:10 pm.
I agree! I love that site. And I saw the landing myself, too. *G*
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 2:23 pm.
I hadn’t heard of Snopes.com, but I will have to check it out.
My cousin was under the impression that if she was breastfeeding she couldn’t get pregnant. Well, 11 months later she gave birth to another baby. When she told me this, I couldn’t help but laugh. This wasn’t something she had asked the doctor about, but something she had heard passed around the office. I think a little common sense would have done her a world of good. It’s like girls who think that can’t become pregnant if it’s their first time. Commom sense will tell you that you certainly can.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 12:58 pm.
Well, there’s a LITTLE bit of truth to that–breastfeeding can delay fertility–but it’s by no means a sure thing. I sure wouldn’t rely on it.
Your poor cousin! Although I’m sure she’s happy to have the other baby.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 2:28 pm.
I do. But I don’t think I know many. I really, really want to know the truth about everything.
One urban myth (is it an urban myth if it’s historical?) is that cowboys in the old west drank whiskey, straight. The truth is that they drank mixed drinks of very fancy types. It was because with straight liquor, the drinks could be watered down with all sorts of brown things, like tobacco and icky junk. Mixed drinks, like Champagne Flip, were harder to fake.
Who wants to read a book where the cowboy, after gunning down the rotten sheriff, says, “Strawberry punch, all round!”
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 3:22 pm.
I love that one! Yes, I think the strawberry punch wouldn’t contribute to the macho image of a cowboy. *G*
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 7:20 pm.
Along the same lines as the Berliner story, we all know now that Al Gore never claimed to have invented the Internet, right? He just helped implement the scope of its network.
As for homeopathics, I’d join with the crowd and scoff, except that I was seriously helped by the stuff a few decades ago. I kept shouting, “These are just sugar pills!” at the person giving them to me, but within a half-hour after ingesting same, the painful allergic reaction that a local clinic had refused to treat until my kidneys shut down (!), and that had turned my pale legs brownish-black and blobby, had completely disappeared. I KNEW those pills wouldn’t work! I knew at the time the “theory” and ways of manufacture behind them—what rubbish!
But they worked.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 5:00 pm.
You just never know, do you?
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 7:21 pm.
Urban myths are fun; the problem arises when people believe them to be facts.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 5:54 pm.
Exactly!
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 7:21 pm.
LOVE the Snopes site! With the advent of the Internet the capacity of people to create and pass on these urban legends and myths has taken on a life of its own. Because I am a bit of a research nut I tend to research anything that sounds a little “hinky.”
I asked a coworker to site her source a few days ago when she said cats should never be allowed in the house with children because they “suck out a baby’s breath.” Really? Show me one documented study, one actual incident. Her reply? “Well that’s what I’ve always heard.” I tried to explain it was an old wives tale born of pure ignorance, not to mention a physical impossibility, but sometimes there is no combating years of folklore steeped in unreasonable fear. Sigh.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 10:08 pm.
That’s just sad. Cats are sucking the breath out of babies? Are they performing witchcraft and riding on brooms, too, LOL? Because that would really be interesting.
Posted on September 14, 2012 at 10:27 pm.
I get so tired of intelligent people forwarding me the urban legends/myths/hoaxes…I reply with links to snopes to debunk–they have the nerve to get mad at me! one is a bit of a “fire and brimstone” person so I reminded her that it’s perpetuating something that’s not true…somethings are so obviously too good to be true…I was taught to double-check and make sure things are factual…I may be a bit anal about it, but I don’t forward those things to my friends…
BTW, the cats and baby is an old wives tale that goes back a long time…I seem to remember my grandma being worried about it
Posted on September 15, 2012 at 2:56 pm.
I know what you mean. I’ve been known to send links to snopes as well. I really don’t like getting these feverish “warnings” that simply aren’t true.
Posted on September 17, 2012 at 2:15 pm.
Im a huge skeptic, I find it hard to believe outlandish things. I’m always looking things up that seem to hard to believe to find out the “truth” but I have to admit I have always believed and repeated the 10% brain thing. Now I just feel stupid :/
Posted on September 18, 2012 at 10:46 am.
Denise. I’ve had the same experience as you with people who forward myths or incorrect information. People have gotten angry with me or called me a know it all for telling them that their info is incorrect. They are spreading incorrect info and myths, but i’m the bad guy for telling them so. They’re saying, Don’t confuse me with facts, my mind is made up.
Posted on November 18, 2012 at 9:29 pm.