41 Misconceptions And Outdated Beliefs People Proudly Corrected

"It must be true if it's on the Internet," is a common joke online. By now, most people know that online spaces, especially social media, are rife with false information, news, and facts. In 2025, the Pew Research Center surveyed people from 25 high-and middle-income countries about their views on misinformation online.

The survey revealed that people take false information on the Internet seriously. In fact, 72% of the people surveyed from all 25 countries claimed they see it as a major threat to their states. Interestingly, older people (those over 50) and those on the ideological left tend to believe that misinformation is a serious issue.

People come across suspicious information and claims almost daily. According to a 2024 Ofcom study, 4 in 10 UK adults encountered misinformation or deepfake content at least 4 weeks before taking the survey. By now, people don't put much faith in the Internet to find reliable information: 71% of survey respondents admitted they have come to terms with the fact that online spaces will always be a mixed bag of reliable and unreliable information.

The negative aspect of this doubting and questioning is that people are losing trust in news providers. Only 32% of Brits think that journalists work transparently, and 42% believe that traditional news sources cover up more important stories.

But misinformation doesn't apply only to news and politics. As we can see from this list, we often learn things wrong early in our lives, such as how our bodies, animal behavior, and social interactions work. Take the infamous claim that we only use 10% of our brains, which was even used in the 2014 film Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson.

That claim is actually a myth. According to scientists at MIT, we use 100% of our brains. "All of our brain is constantly in use and consumes a tremendous amount of energy," an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences, Mila Halgren, explains. Even if we experience brain injuries, our brains can bounce back and function at a 100% capacity. "Entire brain hemispheres can be removed during early childhood and the rest of the brain will rewire and compensate for the loss," Halgren says.

There are plenty of interesting tidbits like these on the Internet. In fact, you'll even see a lot here on Bored Panda. However, there's an art to fact-checking, which ones are true and which are not even in the realm of plausible. Digital literacy expert Mike Caulfield has created the SIFT method to spot misinformation online, with each letter corresponding to a step.

S is for stop. There's a sense of never-ending urgency online, but Caulfield invites people to take a beat and wait before believing every single thing we come across as we scroll on our devices. Instead of sharing the thing you think you just learned or commenting on it, move on to the next step.

I — investigate the source. Where does this claim come from? A TikTok creator may have shared that a new supplement on the market can help you lose weight and feel more energized. Check whether they're being paid to make this claim, and whether they're affiliated with the company that makes the supplement. Does the creator have any expertise: are they an influencer, a dietician, a scientist, perhaps? It's always a good idea to ask yourself: "Would you believe what this person is saying even if you disagreed with them?"