What hoaxes do people believe no matter how often they’re debunked? – 17 mistruths that somehow stubbornly persist

In the age of alternative facts, it’s becoming harder and harder to tell what’s a hoax and what’s real. It doesn’t help that when mistruths are proven to be wrong, people choose to believe them anyway.

MrLithician was curious to learn more about these persistent falsehoods, so they headed over to the online bastion of truth and logic – AKA r/AskReddit – to pose the following question:

‘What stubborn hoax do way too many people still believe, no matter how often it gets debunked?’

And the fact checkers came out in force with these top answers…

1.

‘”I HEREBY DECLARE THAT I DO NOT GIVE MY PERMISSION FOR FACEBOOK OR META TO USE ANY OF MY PERSONAL DATA. I do not give consent! I Do Not allow Meta to use any of my photos!!”‘
-Joe1972

2.

‘That swallowing chewing gum takes 7 years to digest. My parents told me this to scare me and I still see full-grown adults repeating it’
-yunamei1412

3.

‘That unoxygenated blood is blue in your veins.’
-ThinkingThruWutHeard

4.

‘“You only use 10% of your brain”

‘Only true for certain Redditors.’
-whatdoihia

5.

‘That detox teas somehow “clean toxins” out of your body. Your liver and kidneys already do that for free’
-fapster999

6.

‘Msg is bad’
-Historical_Camel_790

7.

‘That cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. A doctor literally cracked the knuckles on only one hand for 60 years to test this. Nothing happened. He won an Ig Nobel Prize for it. People still warn their kids.’
-LibrarianProper1520

8.

‘That people are putting litter boxes in schools for students who identify as cats’
-JesusGodLeah

9.

‘Flat Earthers. Complete morons.’
-NicAoidh65