We learn about the world through our experiences and people that surround us, which is a normal process. Nobody’s experiences are completely the same, which leads us to having different perspectives on certain things.
That means that we might think something is quite common as we hear about it or see it often, but in general, it’s the opposite. Plane crashes happen less often than perceived, as well as many other things netizens pointed out in this Reddit thread.
More info: Reddit
#1
Quicksand.
I was led to believe it would be a much bigger problem in my adult life.
175points
#2
Being transgender.
I saw a news reel once where the anchor was interviewing people off the street, all political affiliations. Conservatives thought 30% to 40% of kids were identifying as Trans. Liberals a bit closer, guessed 10%-20%.
The real number revealed at the end of the segment?
1.4% 💀
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175points
#3
People surviving CPR and waking up immediately acting normal and asking what happened.
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131points
#4
That men are pretending to be trans so they can sneak into the ladies room to watch us pee.
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129points
#5
Stranger abductions of children represent less than one percent of all missing child cases (in the US, at least). They're mostly runaways or family abductions.
120points
#6
Casting director here.
Having a career in acting, I don't mean being famous. I mean paying your bills with acting alone.
I would hazard being an exclusively working actor is about 1% of actors.
But the amount of people still going into acting tells me people think otherwise.
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114points
#7
Pearls. Of all the fine stones(I know it classifies differently, but for jewelry, it’s basically a stone), it’s the one that has to happen in an oyster, which only exist on Earth. Other planets are literally raining diamonds, they’re so common. But, pearls are probably one of the rarest substances to exist
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114points
#10
Successfully suing a company for millions. Some Redditors will have you believe that any minor inconvenience should earn you some kind of massive payout. And the comments will assure you that the company will do anything to avoid bad PR.
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100points
#13
Walking into an alley in Manhattan. Happens all the time in shows/movies, in reality there are like 1 or 2 in the whole borough.
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91points
#14
Drag Queens at the local library.
I go to my library at least twice a week, and I've yet to see one.
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91points
#15
Becoming a self-made millionaire. That's hard without a bunch of leg-ups.
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89points
#18
Amnesia. It's common in fiction because it's convenient in ways that makes things easy for the writers, for example explaining why someone's dark past is a secret which can be revealed later at the climax of the story. In real life it's very rare and doesn't work like people think it does.
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84points
#19
People who are truly compatible with you(and I mean both friendships and relationships)
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82points
#20
Razor blades or poison in Halloween candy. It's zero. Never happened. And now every single kid out trick or treating has to have every candy inspected by mom and dad, and Halloween itself has been hollowed out to a safe boring joke where kids collect candy from one block of stores or from the trunks of a circle of parent's cars.
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80points