‘What is something you thought was common knowledge until you discovered most people had no idea?’ – 23 useful things we should all know

Unless we are nuclear physicists or Sir Stephen Fry, we tend to go through life thinking people have roughly the same amount of knowledge as us, so finding out that people are not aware of what we consider pretty basic facts can be slightly alarming.

Over on the AskReddit page, user JustBeingElara has been pondering this, and posted the following:

What is something you believed to be common knowledge until you discovered most people had no idea?

And lots of people had examples of things that we should all be at least vaguely aware of, like these…

1.

‘That ‘natural’ doesn’t mean ‘healthy’.’
–TaintM3

2.

‘Don’t stop at the end of the escalator. There are people coming up behind you that can’t stop.’
–KayBeeToys

3.

‘When I became a wheelchair user, I thought ‘wheelchairs don’t do stairs’ was common knowledge. So imagine my shock when I started coming across people who thought 3-5 steps would still be considered ‘wheelchair accessible’.

This is why we need to be super specific when asking if a place is wheelchair accessible. We need to ask if there is step-free access. ‘Oh yeah, we are wheelchair accessible, there are just one or two steps’ isn’t an acceptable answer.’
–buckyhermit

4.

‘That percentages are reciprocal. If someone is struggling to figure out 8% of 25, just tell them it’s the same as 25% of 8. It seems to blow people’s minds.’
–Hot_Sea_7676

5.

‘That the seasons are reversed in the northern and southern hemispheres.

As an Australian, this is a fact we all know from a very young age. When I first went overseas at age 16, I quickly learnt that many, many people (including full grown adults) in the northern hemisphere have no idea about this.’
–Lost_in_the_Library

6.

‘Also that the stars are different between hemispheres. There are completely different constellations in the south than the north.’
–DJteejay04

7.

‘You should NOT pee on someone who was just stung by a jelly fish. It doesn’t help anything and now you’re pissing on someone who is already in a lot of physical pain.’
–gladeye

8.

‘Low(er) in calories does not mean it’s healthy or better for you.’
–drinking_varnish

9.

‘The lack of knowledge religious people have about their religion tends to surprise me.’
–Max_Danage

10.

‘Tax brackets! No, Bob, taxes won’t wipe out the raise you just turned down. You’re just an idiot.’
–Damn_Dog_Inappropes

11.

‘You COULDN’T care less. This is something I could care less about and really should.’
–_Monsterguy_

12.

‘That the UK has not left the European continent, just the European Union. The amount of people who genuinely think we’re not part of Europe anymore shocks me.’
–247mumbles