40 Counterintuitive Facts That Are Like the Dark Matter Holding Together the Rest of the Garbage in Our Brains

It’s time to learn the truth
40 Counterintuitive Facts That Are Like the Dark Matter Holding Together the Rest of the Garbage in Our Brains

As you can probably guess, we didn’t go to medical school. We did, however, learn the fine art of surgically removing myths and misconceptions from deep within a brain. If we didn’t have to put you under anesthesia right now, you could see and appreciate our steady hands. We can extract the lies without touching a single truth. 

Our parents are quick to remind us that it’s not brain surgery, but we think it’s just as skillful — and important!

Colors

THE STEREOTYPE... BLUE IS FOR BOYS! PINK IS FOR GIRLS! BUT in REALITY... THOSE USED TO RUN THE OPPOSITE WAY. A 1918 editorial from Earnshaw's Infants' Department said pink was a more decided and stronger color ... more suitable for the boy; while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl. CRACKED.COM

Gossip

THE STEREOTYPE... GOSSIP IS A WOMAN'S GAME. Mail BUT in REALITY... MEN CAN'T RESIST IT AT US ALL. When men and women hear a juicy secret, many men will share it with someone almost immediately after learning about it. Polled women, on the other hand, keep it to themselves for at least three and a half hours. CRACKED.COM

Domestic Abuse

THE STEREOTYPE... DOMESTIC ABUSERS ARE MEN. BUT in REALITY... MORE ARE WOMEN. Women are more likely to abuse, stalk, and attack their partners. Hundreds of scientific studies back this up. Men are more likely to hurt their partners successfully, but when couples get violent, women more often strike first. CRACKED.COM

Germans

THe STEREOTYPE... GERMANS ARE THE WORLD'S CARNIVORES. BUT in REALITY... EXCEPT FOR ALL THE ONES WHO AREN'T. A whopping 10 percent of Germans are vegan (for comparison, just 3 percent are vegan in neighboring France). In 2016, Germany Taunched more new vegan products than any other country. CRACKED.COM

PMS

THe STEREOTYPE... MOODY? MUST BE THAT TIME OF THE MONTH! but in REALITY... PMS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MOOD SWINGS. We're not saying that hormones don't change behavior-they do, in both women and men. But there's little evidence that women become emotionally compromised or irrational during the supposed PMS phase. CRACKED.COM

Drinking

THE STEREOTYPE... RUSSIANS ARE THE WORLD'S DRINKERS. СЛАВЯНСКАЯ - ЗААССИЧЕСКАЯ 11 Русский ПУТИНИ НАСТО СТАНДАРТ Are - КЕДРОВАЯ Boyka PUTINK FOR WE FREE SALE TO UAA YODKA the 4482 BNA водра ITTA OCOGAN BUT in REALITY... THEY DRINK THE SAME AS AMERICANS. The average Russian drinks 2.77 gallons a year, not much more than the average American's 2.42. In fact, it puts Russia at number 23 on the list of countries ranked by alcohol consumption. CRACKED.COM

Coal Miners

THE STEREOTYPE... THE WORKING CLASS IS FULL OF COAL MINERS. BUT in REALITY... THERE ARE JUST 16,000 OF THEM NATIONWIDE. There are more ophthalmic laboratory technicians than coal miners. And yet you'll rarely hear national policy being written and entire states swinging to protect their jobs. CRACKED.COM

Coffee

Contrary to popular belief, lighter coffee has higher caffeine content. When coffee is roasted, it loses caffeine, meaning that a dark and robust cup of coffee has less caffeine than a lighter roast. CRACKED

Vitamin C

Contrary to popular belief, Vitamin С doesn't prevent you from catching a cold. But it can have some benefits for colds, like reducing their severity or duration - that's the finding of a meta-analysis of 29 scientific studies. CRACKED.COM

Palm Trees

CRACKED PALM TREES ARE NATIVE TO L.A. It's a common misconception that palm trees are from Los Angeles. In reality, most of the palm trees in L.A. were brought in from other places and planted to make the city more beautiful and attract more people. с DESER SP KEE adidas HOLTYWO VEN Sterlins 2

The Founding Fathers

CRACKED.COM MYTH: The Founding Fathers were Christians. No matter who you include as a Founding Father, not all of them were Christian. Deism (which prioritizes human experience and rationality over religious dogma and texts) had a huge influence during their time.

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Aging

CRACKED Old people used to be rare. Contrary to popular belief, people in the past could live to be quite old. Archaeological evidence and records show that humans have been able to reach their 70s, 80s, and even 90s for the past 160,000 years.

The War of the Worlds

NO, AMERICANS DIDN'T GO INTO A MASS FIGHT-OR-FLIGHTI PANIC WHEN THEY HEARD THE RADIO PLAY BROADCAST OF The War of the Worlds. You'd swear the US popul

Happy Days

Conventional wisdom says Happy Days croaked when Fonzie literally jumped the shark in season five. But a more accurate low water mark might be The Nu

Buddhism

YOU'D THINK THAT A RELIGIOUS DALarLAMA LEADER LIKE THE WOULDN'T CARE ABOUT SCIENCE ACTUALLY, HE LOVES IT! World-class scientists have generously coac

Lighters

Contrary to popular belief, lighters have been around longer than matchsticks. Chemist Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner invented the first lighter in 1823,

Flying

FLIGHT FLIGHT LICENSE WOULD BE A 01/12/2016 01/12/209 BUREAUCRATIC NiGHTMARE. You don't think you'd just be able to do anything you want up in the sky

Mental Health

You'd think babies born in big cities would be healthien. Not when it comes to mental health. Specifically, children born in large cities are nearly t

Male Emotions

CRACKED.COM CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, MEN ARE MORE EMOTIONALLY' SENSITIVE THAN WOMEN. In one experiment, when presented with blissful, funny, exciti

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