Just because something’s repeated on the internet or in the classroom over and over again doesn’t automatically make it true. New research helps to constantly update our understanding of the world, but far from everyone gets the memo. And while some science lovers stay up-to-date with the newest and freshest discoveries, others cling on to old ‘facts’ that might no longer be true.
The internet’s full of ridiculous ‘facts’ and bro-science that sound logical but are anything but the moment you start digging just a bit deeper. And the ‘Myth Vs Fact’ Twitter account helps debunk popular internet myths by contrasting them with the truth.
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Scroll down for some myth vs. fact comparisons and let us know in the comments which of these took you by surprise. Were there any myths that you took for facts? Are there any myths that weren’t mentioned that you think all Pandas should know about? Tell us all about it in the comments.
Bored Panda had a chat about scientific myths and facts with Steven Wooding, a member of the Institute of Physics in the UK, a member of the Omni Calculator team, and the creator of the Weird Units Converter. He told us that in areas where our knowledge is lacking, we can’t immediately tell if something is a lie or not. “Most people then default to thinking the myth is true because they believe it is too much effort to check it out,” he said.
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Steven, from the Omni Calculator team, explained to Bored Panda that in modern times, we have a much easier time accessing and double-checking information. For instance, in the past, you’d need to go to the library. Meanwhile, “we now have Google and Wikipedia and can quickly debunk most things.” However, that doesn’t automatically mean that someone will spend their time making sure a fact is actually correct.
“A lot of people still don’t take that step. It should get better over time. Facts will win in the end,” Steven said.
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Steven agrees that keeping up with every new scientific finding is probably a full-time job these days. He suggests not stressing out too much about it.
“Focus on subjects and areas that interest you and seek out news about them,” he told Bored Panda. “It is essential to appreciate that human knowledge is just today’s best answer, but the answer may change tomorrow. Hopefully, the fundamentals don’t change much, but relatively new sciences can and do change rapidly.”
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According to Steven, from the Omni Calculator project, the myths that tend to get repeated the most are usually the ones that offer simple answers, whereas more complicated ones are actually closer to the truth.
“For example, the ‘world population is growing exponentially.’ No, it’s not. The growth rate is now half of what it was in 1965, and in some developed countries, the population is falling, ” he said, noting that Europe, North America, China, Japan, and Australia all have birth rates below the required replacement rate. “So the basic ‘fact’ of the myth is wrong, and the reality is a lot more complicated.”
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The ‘Myth Vs Fact’ Twitter page has nearly 90k followers which is an impressive feat, considering that the account was created very recently, in June 2022. The project is a good primer to get your curiosity revved up and to get you doing your own research about the topics that interest you.
It’s impossible to portray every single scientific nuance on any question in a tiny Twitter post, so take some of the myth vs. fact pairings with a tiny grain of salt: there’s always a slightly broader context to be aware of. For instance, the Great Wall of China really can’t be from space, unless you use magnification… and even then, the conditions have to be pretty much perfect.
Meanwhile, carrots can improve your eyesight only under certain conditions. However, carrots don’t actually have the near-mystical qualities that you might have heard about in popular culture. So, when asked whether carrots actually improve your eyesight, you’d be better off saying yes and no, leaning more towards the latter. But nuance doesn’t always make for good social media content because brevity is key there.
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Bored Panda has spoken about media literacy, the reliability of information, as well as fact-checking quite a few times now. A while back, we got in touch with Lee McIntyre from the Center of Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. Lee noted that repetition plays a key part in what we accept as the truth.
“Repetition is important in making us believe things, whether they are true or not. There is a cognitive bias called the ‘illusory truth effect’ which is when we are repeatedly exposed to false information over and over and, over time, it begins to seem more plausible,” he said that the idea has been on people’s radars since antiquity.
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“Social psychologists have known since the 1960s that repetition works, for truth or falsity. In fact, this idea goes back to Plato who said that it didn’t hurt to repeat a true thing. And of course, for falsehood, this was one of the main propaganda tactics in Nazi Germany, where Hitler’s propaganda minister understood the ‘repetition effect.’” People begin to believe falsehoods if they’re repeated over and over (and over) again.
Even well-educated individuals can sometimes fall prey to these biases and fallacies. “I understand cognitive bias, yet last election season I kept seeing signs for the same candidate running for local office around my town. I thought, ‘Wow, I guess everyone is voting for her.’ It turns out I was just walking my dog in the neighborhood where she lived, and her friends and neighbors had up lots of signs! So I fooled myself,” Lee shared an example from his own life with Bored Panda.
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The expert mentioned that it would be absolutely exhausting to fact-check every single piece of news that we hear. That’s why we have to learn to pick the right news sources. “In fact, insisting on this degree of skepticism is something that demagogues use to get us to be cynical, because when we doubt that it is possible to know the truth—even when it is staring us in the face—we are riper to their manipulation. So I’d say the best thing with news is to do a little investigation into finding a reliable source,” he said.
“Look for an organization that does investigative journalism (and doesn’t just repeat information from other sources), double sources its quotations, discloses conflicts of interest, etc. Once we’ve found that we can relax a bit and trust the reporting behind the stories. Do we still need to be on guard? Yes. Even The New York Times can make mistakes. Or individual reporters can have biases. But that doesn’t mean ‘all sources are equal.'”
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Lee shared some questions that everyone should be asking themselves when on social media and reading the news: “Is the story copyrighted? Is it dated? Is there a byline? Are other stories by the author solid? Is it published in a source that has been reliable in the past? Does it seem plausible—if not then you can do some research. Will we get fooled sometimes in doing this? Yes. But we’re going to get fooled sometimes anyway”
He continued: “It’s analogous to how scientists form their beliefs. They are skeptics, but they also—at some point when the evidence is sufficient—give their assent. Scientists deal with warrant, not ‘proof.’ They are what philosophers call ‘fallibilists.’ You give your belief to things that are well-sourced with evidence, while always holding out the possibility that if further evidence comes to light that contradicts your belief, you should give it up because you might be wrong.”
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Meanwhile, media expert Mike Sington reiterated the fact that it’s vital to check which sources are reliable. He told Bored Panda that the sources that he personally trusts are the Associated Press, Reuters, and The New York Times.
“They employ fact-checkers and editors that ensure the information they post is correct. They’re basically doing the research and homework for you. There are literally too many online sources to list that can’t be trusted and should be avoided. Anyone can basically post anything they want… proceed with caution.”
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Some red flags that indicate a claim might be completely made up, according to Mike, include: “It’s outlandish, it’s too good to be true, you haven’t seen the claim anywhere else, you’ve never heard the source, the source isn’t reputable, you can’t find two other sources making the same claim, your gut tells you, ‘this can’t be true.’”
As social media continues to become even more widely used, it’s had a negative effect on the reliability of information. That’s because misinformation can spread just as quickly as—if not quicker than—the truth.
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The media expert told Bored Panda that you should kick things off by doing a simple Google search if you doubt the veracity of a fact. If you’re not able to find any additional evidence to support a claim or if you doubt the reliability of the sources, you ought to remain skeptical.
“Do this and think before reposting or you may be contributing to the problem. Amplification doesn’t make a claim true or accurate.”
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Source: boredpanda.com