Skepticism away from the Coal Face

Mark Honeychurch - 5 February 2024

A lot of skepticism these days involves battling against wrong-heading beliefs related to topics that are important to us, and to our world: whether an all-powerful God created us, and wants us to follow his strict, perversely specific and often nonsensical rules about how to live our lives; if climate change is real, and how much of a risk it is to our continued existence on this planet; the merits (or lack thereof) of alternative medicine, and the dangers they can pose to a misinformed public.

However, one of the places I enjoy using my skepticism is in overturning common misconceptions. These kinds of beliefs generally hold little or no emotional weight, as they generally aren’t the kinds of core beliefs that people build their worldview around. When someone’s challenged about these beliefs, they’re unlikely to put up much of a fight to hold on to them.

This is the point where I should share a few real-world examples of common misconceptions, to help you understand the kinds of beliefs that I’m talking about. And, of course, this is also the point where my writer’s block sets in. So I’ve cheated, and jumped on to the Wikipedia List of common misconceptions to find you a few good examples:

• The word “the” was never pronounced or spelled “ye” in Old or Middle English.
• Microwave ovens are not tuned to any specific resonant frequency for water molecules in the food. They cook food via dielectric heating of polar molecules, including water.
• Napoleon Bonaparte was not especially short for a Frenchman of his time. He was the height of an average French male in 1800, but short for an aristocrat or officer. After his death in 1821, the French emperor’s height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet, which in English measurements is 5 feet 7 inches.
• Victorian-era doctors did not invent the vibrator to cure female “hysteria” by triggering orgasm.
• Bulls are not enraged by the color red, used in capes by professional matadors. Cattle are dichromats, so red does not stand out as a bright color. It is not the color of the cape, but the perceived threat by the matador that incites it to charge.Lemmings do not engage in mass suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating.

These are just a few of the many, many misconceptions listed on that page - I’d recommend skimming through it to see how many wrong ideas you’ve picked up over your lifetime. In fact one of the items above, about Napoleon, I only learned a few weeks ago at a Skeptics in the Pub meeting, and another one (the one about microwaves) was news to me when I read it a few minutes ago!

A while ago Katrina wrote for this newsletter about psychology myths, from the simple ones such as that we only use 10% of our brains, through to some beliefs that I held until I read her article - like one about the bystander effect.

I find it very enjoyable, possibly perversely so, to be able to confidently tell someone that actually they (and most other people) are wrong about something, and that the piece of knowledge they’ve been holding onto for many years is in fact not true. Of course, even when challenging beliefs that I know are unlikely to start a heated argument, I still try to frame my side of these conversations with phrases that let people know that it’s okay for them to have believed something that’s not true. It can be good to mention that most people ascribe to the belief, so the person you’re talking with isn’t alone. And I also like to point out when it’s an erroneous belief that I also held for most of my life - that I was wrong until someone corrected me.

I also experience joy when finding out that what I had believed to be true was not actually the case, and I guess I’m probably not alone in this. As a programmer, a good analogy for me is that of squishing bugs in my code. I know there will always be bugs, and that no code is ever perfect, but each problem I can fix, each badly coded line of software that I correct, makes my code less wrinkly and align better with its intended purpose. I’m happy when I’ve removed a fault in my code, and I’m similarly happy when I’ve removed a misconception from my brain.

In fact I think that finding an instance where I’ve believed a misconception is actually more enjoyable than letting someone else know they’ve done the same thing. Every time I correct one of my false beliefs, I’m one step closer to cleaning out my closet of mental nonsense. Of course, it’s quite likely that I’m picking up new pieces of misinformation just as quickly as I’m fixing the old ones, but I hope that I’m winning the war and slowly removing my bad idea baggage.

I think this tactic of learning about common misconceptions is a fun skeptical pursuit. I like to collect these little facts, ready to bust them out at the next barbecue I’m at where someone happens to unwittingly drop one into conversation.

As a parting gift, here are some fun skeptical tidbits I like to drop into conversations - idioms I’ve been collecting that actually mean something different, often the opposite, to what most of us have been led to believe they mean:

Opposite Idioms

Jack of All Trades

“A Jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one”

Blood is Thicker than Water

“The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”

Great Minds Think Alike

“Great minds think alike, though fools seldom differ”

Curiosity killed the cat

“Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back”

Starve a cold, feed a fever

“If you starve a cold, you’ll have to feed a fever”

My country, right or wrong

“My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right”