Scientists already have a bad rap from some parts of society because they have the audacity to not take things on faith, but instead require evidence and proof. So it is rare to see them go out of their way to kill off myths (myth-buster's aside, they are more interested in ratings and doing extreme things and only appeal to a geek audience anyway). That's why I loved this article in the British Medical Journal. Apparently their xmas edition is always on the lighter side, but this was just brilliant!
Some of the myths I hadn't believed in years (reading in dim light ruins your eyesight, for example), others I had suspected were false but didn't have any hard evidence (eating turkey makes you drowsy), others I thought were true because my doctor had told me so (drink 8 glasses of water a day). But my favorite from the middle category is the myth that we only use 10% of our brain (and the extended version: that Einstein used 11% of his). Any cursory scientific study of what we know of the human brain quickly makes this seem absurd. Which part do we use? Which (massive) parts don't we use? How would MRI scans be useful (you'd need a huge magnifier just to see the little active part)?
More interesting to me is why these myths persist. Perhaps suspicion that something is false doesn't outweigh social browbeating ("well, that seems wrong but all of you are forcibly denouncing me for disagreeing, so I'll capitulate"). Or maybe (like the 10% of the brain one) we want to believe it. Wouldn't it be nice if all we needed to excel in life was more mental exercise? People try to sell you on the idea that you can exercise your eyes to better vision, why not your brain?
Socially backed myths are powerful forces and to fight against them gets you ostracized, branded a heretic, tortured and/or burned alive. So its no surprise that they persist but that makes evidence against them all the more admirable.
No, Virginia, there is no Santa Clause
Some of the myths I hadn't believed in years (reading in dim light ruins your eyesight, for example), others I had suspected were false but didn't have any hard evidence (eating turkey makes you drowsy), others I thought were true because my doctor had told me so (drink 8 glasses of water a day). But my favorite from the middle category is the myth that we only use 10% of our brain (and the extended version: that Einstein used 11% of his). Any cursory scientific study of what we know of the human brain quickly makes this seem absurd. Which part do we use? Which (massive) parts don't we use? How would MRI scans be useful (you'd need a huge magnifier just to see the little active part)?
More interesting to me is why these myths persist. Perhaps suspicion that something is false doesn't outweigh social browbeating ("well, that seems wrong but all of you are forcibly denouncing me for disagreeing, so I'll capitulate"). Or maybe (like the 10% of the brain one) we want to believe it. Wouldn't it be nice if all we needed to excel in life was more mental exercise? People try to sell you on the idea that you can exercise your eyes to better vision, why not your brain?
Socially backed myths are powerful forces and to fight against them gets you ostracized, branded a heretic, tortured and/or burned alive. So its no surprise that they persist but that makes evidence against them all the more admirable.
No, Virginia, there is no Santa Clause
That article is a lot fun. The myth that eliminating dairy will relieve cold symptoms is one that has affected our lives. Other moms have sworn by this, but it never seemed to help Nathan when he was sick. I was so relieved when I saw some research saying that dairy would not help. As you and the article mentioned, it amazes me how people will swear by the myths that they believe. I also love when people swear by something because they heard a scientific report "suggesting" something. They don't realize that error can occur or maybe that the research was conducted poorly. Perhaps, more research needs to be done. All they know is that science has proved it, and now it is true even if science says it is not.
Your comment got buried in my spam filter, sorry for the delay in getting it published.
It is true that a sort of cult of "studies" has emerged where reading it on some news site is enough to make it true.
The brilliance of the scientific method is that it is a process, not an end goal. Keep refining the data, keep testing the hypotheses.