45 Fascinating Facts That People Didn't Learn At School, As Shared On 'Today I Learned' (New Pics)

To learn more about why it's important to be a lifelong learner, we reached out to fellow lover of fun facts and author of How to Kill an Earworm, Jana Louise Smit, who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. Jana Louise Smit honed her craft as a trivia writer at Listverse, the internet’s original Top Ten site. She also wrote for the award-winning Introvert, Dear, the world’s largest online community and blog for introverts. Born and raised in sunny South Africa, Jana has now settled in the Eastern Cape where she enjoys life as a busy freelance writer, a blogger on various topics, and a deep thinker (mostly about snacks and dogs).

When it comes to why we should never stop learning, Smit says, "Continuous learning makes you smarter and can ground you in a world where people are being swept away by false stories. I believe that fun facts make the best teacher. They’ll educate, inform, and open the mind merely by being entertaining."

Smit's book, How to Kill an Earworm, is full of psychology fun facts we "need to know," so we were curious what inspired her to write this book. "I want people to fall in love with the wonderful rabbit hole of psychology and that means giving them something of value, something that will keep their eyes glued to the page," she told Bored Panda. "For this reason, I decided to write a book packed with unusual facts that provide quick shortcuts to a deeper understanding of the human mind."

Smit also shared how she decided what information to feature in her book. "I settled on seven branches of psychology, or chapters," she explained. "In every chapter, I added roughly 90 or 100 facts that were relevant to that particular branch. For this book, I only drew on reputable sources including scientific journals, psychology associations, medical associations, and well-respected news outlets, among others."

The author even shared some of the most interesting information she's come across throughout all of her research. "Mosh pits. Like most people, I assumed mosh pits happened when music fans lost their minds during a live performance, simple as that. I was surprised to learn that this 'mindless' behavior is actually a microcosm with a complex social psychology," Smit explained, adding that, no, she has not been in a mosh pit herself (yet!).

Finally, Smit shared some wise words on how we can continue being lifelong learners. "Choose a topic that you’re already interested in, but don’t hesitate to dive into something completely novel every now and again. Both have the ability to keep you engaged and learning for life."

If you'd like to learn some psychology fun facts to understand yourself and everyone else a bit better, be sure to check out How to Kill an Earworm right here!