In their book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, communication experts Dan and Chip Heath explain why some ideas are “sticky” — they get stuck in our heads and make their way into the zeitgeist. An idea can be sticky and true or sticky and false. In today’s IFOD, I highlight 11 commonly repeated sticky ideas that are untrue.
1. We only use 10% of our brain. This is completely false. There is no underutilized part of our brains. People seem to like this myth because it suggests that there is some untapped potential we can access. Read more: Do People Only Use 10% of Their Brains?
2. Lemmings periodically engage in mass suicide. The myth holds that once lemming populations get too large, they migrate en masse and throw themselves off cliffs or into the sea in order to control their own population growth. The source of the mass suicide myth is largely credited to a 1958 documentary by Disney called “White Wilderness,” whereby the producers imported lemmings into Alberta, Canada (not their native habitat) and filmed them in a mass migration and then tossing themselves off a cliff into the sea. The lemmings supposedly committing mass suicide by leaping into the ocean were actually thrown off the cliff by the Disney filmmakers. Read more: Do Lemmings Really Engage in Mass Suicide?
3. Most heat escapes from our heads. Wrong. This myth likely comes from a poorly done experiment by the army in the 1950s and reprinted in the 1970 Army Field Manual. Actually, what the experiment found was that in arctic conditions if you are wearing a survival parka without a hat most of your heat escapes from your head. However, if you were naked or wearing thin clothes most of your heat loss would come from elsewhere. Read more: Scientists debunk the myth that you lose most heat through your head
4. Swallowed Gum Stays in your Stomach for Seven Years. Nope – its pretty harmless. If gum did hang around for seven years Sean Spicer would have a gargantuan stomach because he swallows about 35 pieces of gum each day before noon: The Science of Sean Spicer’s Compulsive Gum Swallowing Habit
5. Lightning Doesn’t Strike the Same Place Twice. Actually, it is common for lightning to strike the same place over and over. The Empire State Bldg gets struck by lightning about 100 times per year. Some areas of ground have characteristics that make them more likely to be struck multiple times such as salt, moisture, metal content or the terrain.
6. A Penny Dropped from the Empire State Building Would Kill Someone if it Hit Them on the Head. Nope. It wouldn’t bore into your skull. It would likely feel like you were flicked in the forehead – in other words it would sting a bit, but not injure you. Read more: A Penny Dropped
7. The Hair and Nails Continue to Grow for Months After Death. We’ve seen it in movies and of course the Thriller music video – corpses with gnarly long hair and nails. Not true though. Hair and nails need glucose to grow and glucose is no longer produced after death. The reason for this myth likely is that other tissues retract due to dehydration and may make the nails and hair appear as if they’ve growth. Source: Do Your Nails Grow After Death?
8. Alcohol Kills Brain Cells. Fortunately, this is not true. Alcohol doesn’t kill brain cells – it can, however, interfere with communication between cells and also damage the cells – but it does not kill them. Read more: Does Drinking Alcohol Kill Brain Cells?
9. Cracking Your Knuckles Causes Arthritis. The “pop” of a cracked knuckle is caused by bubbles bursting in the fluid that helps lubricate joints. The bubbles pop when you pull the bones apart. While there are studies on this, the best evidence comes from Donald Unger, a doctor who cracked the knuckles on his left hand periodically for 60 years but never cracked the knuckles on his right hand. Neither hand developed arthritis and he won an Ig Noble award for his efforts. Source: Does Knuckle Cracking Cause Arthritis?
10. If you Swim Soon After You Eat You’ll Get a Cramp and Drown. Not true. There is no evidence of even one case of drowning due to post-meal cramping. Overexertion can cause cramping, but having eaten recently is not a cramping factor. Read more: Wait an Hour to Swim After Eating?
11. The Great Wall Of China is the ONLY Man Made Object Visible From Space. Actually, it’s really hard or impossible to see the Great Wall from even low orbit. Things that are visible from space: the pyramids, large bridges, cities at night, Donald Trump’s ego. Read more: Is the Great Wall Visible From Space?
Here’s a picture of the Great Wall from orbit:
I think my mother and her friends all started the myth about getting cramps if you swim after eating. They needed a break from watching the kids. Love the post. Best line at the end.