30 Cooks Share Horrendous Cooking Tips That Have No Reason Being As Widely Spread As They Are

When you really stop to think about it, it’s not only in cooking that there are many tips and tricks that many of us know, but, at some point, we learn they don’t actually work. This makes us wonder why it is such a common occurrence and why we keep falling for it.

Well, it turns out what we’re dealing with is known as the illusory truth effect or the illusion of truth. It describes how when we keep hearing the same false information over and over again, we tend to start believing it as if it were true.

Becoming affected by this bias does not indicate that an individual is uneducated, as we might initially be aware of the correct information and still end up believing something false because of constant exposure to it. At times, even concrete evidence proving that the advice is empty might not stop a person from following it in the case that it still might do at least something of what it promised. 

And in this day and age, information can spread faster than ever before, thanks to the internet and social media. And since we make thousands of decisions every day, no one really goes to check every single fact they hear, thus enabling the cycle to continue.

In addition to that, we don’t really like to be wrong, do we? Well, that’s where confirmation bias comes in, an occurrence when we look for information supporting our existing beliefs, ignoring or outright rejecting any data that might contradict it. 

This can come in a few different forms, such as biased memory, recalling things in a way that would support our beliefs, biased information searches online (where we type in the thing we want to confirm in a way that the results we get align with our beliefs), and biased interpretation (where we interpret evidence in a way that supports our beliefs, quickly accepting what fits and very critically analyzing what doesn’t).

And, of course, in the end, we once again come to the internet and social media, where the information spreads quickly and is tailored to show us what we want to see, all thanks to the almighty algorithms.

It seems that completely avoiding this is not really possible. After all, these biases existed long before modern technologies, which only gives them a boost. Ultimately, it is a very human thing to believe something that most do and look for ways to confirm it rather than deny it. But keeping an open mind and spending a little extra effort checking your facts won’t hurt and, at the very least, might make your cooking attempts quite a bit more successful. So why not give it a shot?

How much of this cooking advice did you follow without knowing it wasn't helpful? Do you have any tips you'd like to add? Share your thoughts below!