Digg those urban myths

Digg has posted some of the highlights from an old Reddit thread looking at what widely believed “facts” prove, in the end, completely untrue.

James Crugnale suggests that

For generations, people have passed down urban legends, but with the rise of the internet, their dissemination has become even easier and faster. So what makes people so susceptible to spreading false “facts”?

Writing for The Atlantic, Matthew Hutson said that one theory is that myths “endure when they have enough familiar elements to feel plausible, but also have two to three ‘counterintuitive’ elements that make them memorable.”

One myth: we use only 10% of our brain.

The reality: “We use virtually every part of the brain, and [most of] the brain is active almost all the time,” neurologist Barry Gordon told Scientific American.

You can find the full thread here on Reddit.