There are so many commonly accepted facts that you just do not bother to challenge. You quite often read something somewhere, or someone tells you something, and you think "yeah, that sounds right" and you accept it into your life without bothering to verify.

But, turns out, a whole bunch of things we all assumed to be true are actually false! I am shook.

Over on Reddit, a user asked people "What widely accepted fact do you know is wrong?" The results, are, well, they are a little confronting.

Read on to discover some misinformation you may be inadvertently spreading; and let us know others in the comments.

Relieved to know this is fake

t65turbo:

"That you swallow eight spiders a year in your sleep."

HAHA

canonmp11dx:

"We are experiencing a temporary high volume of phone calls. Your call is important to us."

Don't wait!

taako-tuesday:

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing in the USA. There is no law about waiting, you don’t have to. Push to make the police cooperate and list the person missing immediately when you suspect something isn’t right. Don’t lose precious time; it’s extremely important if the person truly is missing."

Good point!!

Hadrian_x_Antinous:

"That medieval/ancient people only lived to be ~32 years old, and at that age, they were considered ancient.

That estimate is an average, which means it accounts for high infant/child mortality. Lots of ancient people lived to their 80s and older. If you made it to 30, chances are good you're making it another 30+ years."

Do your research first folk?!

Do have any other wisdom? Drop it in the comments below.

via GIPHY

Frankenstein!

BoredForever1:

"Frankenstein isn't the name of the monster. It's the name of the Doctor who created the monster. But I saw this great comment on a Youtube video - 'knowledge is knowing Frankenstein isn't the monster. wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein is the monster.'"

Ah, politics

wlane13:

"That my political party is full of only the good people trying to do the good things for the people... and your political party is full of only the bad people trying to do the bad things to take advantage of the people."

Baby birds

anythingbuttstuff:

"If you touch a baby bird the parents will abondon/kill it" Most birds dont do that. If you help a baby bird back into its nest as long as you try not to touch the nest a lot then everything should be fine. If its an adult bird you rescued then not touching it for a day does help with it getting your scent off but not 100% needed. I know this because my mom and I rescue wild animals when they are hurt or still babies and release them when we are able to

Huh...

neighboractually:

"“Left and right brained” people who are either more artistic or more numbers base. Just as inaccurate as the “parts of your tongue that taste different things” yet people still say it."

A much better interpretation

jephistopheles:

"The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is not about how the road less traveled is better.

It's about how you cannot know how life would have turned out if you had made different choices, so you have to convince yourself that your choice made the difference.

He looks down both paths and while one looked slightly less worn, they were really equal with no tracks on either. But he knew he would never be back to make that same choice again, so he imagines that in the future he will say with a sigh that taking the one less traveled made all the difference. He's just making peace with a choice he cannot change."

I guess it just seems like it does?

flipdebeer_:

"Cutting your hair makes it grow faster."

Still a gross sound

quietmouthloudmind54:

"That cracking your knuckles too often will cause arthritis"

Jupiter

Andromeda321:

"Astronomer here! People always say Jupiter protects us from getting hit by asteroids because its larger gravitational pull attracts them (I believe it was on a certain popular astronomy show). In fact, this does not appear to be the case. See, while Jupiter does indeed interact with more things, it is both good and bad- some things hit Jupiter or get flung away, some things get flung directly at Earth that otherwise wouldn’t. Most famously, in 1770 Lexell’s comet passed closer to Earth than any other comet ever observed, missing us by just 6 Earth-moon widths. Turns out Jupiter flung it straight at us right before that. So yeah we almost died thanks to Jupiter, and good and bad comes from having it as a neighbor."

This is SICK

Botany102:

"Gladiators did not kill each other the sport was much more civil and it even had a referee"

He was like 5'6! Not something to put in a Tinder bio, but not that bad

TheNameIsPippen:

"Napoleon wasn't small. He was just the victim of good propaganda by the eventual winners."

NO WAY

robson_bobson:

"If you have a cold, you should get lots of Vitamin C."

This is completely down to one scientist called Linus Pauling who had a theory that massive doses of Vitamin C would cure colds, subsequent studies have shown he was wrong and any benefits are minimal at best. Yet I still get everyone telling me to drink orange juice whenever I get a sniffle.

Pretty sure it was invented to sell cornflakes?

Little-bit_:

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Oh my God aarrgghhhhhhh!"