Hi I’m Elliott. This is Mental Floss on YouTube. Today I’m going to talk about some
misconceptions that you may have learned from the Internet. You should have known better.
Misconception #1: Putting your Personal Information Number in reverse is a universal distress
signal. There’s a persistent Internet rumor that
if you are being robbed at an ATM, you can just punch in your PIN in reverse. Then, the
police will be alerted and will show up to save you. That’s not true. Illinois passed
a law to this effect, but the language was so watered down that nobody bothered to implement
it. Plus, the Federal Trade Commission has announced that this would put the person being
robbed in further danger. And they doubted the police would even show up in time. And
some people have PIN numbers that are the same forwards and backwards. Like mine, which
is 1111.
Misconception #2: The government of New Zealand tried to introduce a “fart tax” to fine
people from farting publicly. The government of New Zealand DID try to introduce
a “fart tax.” BUT it wasn’t to fine PEOPLE who farted. In 2003, the agricultural
emissions research levy was proposed. That’s the less fun name for “fart tax.” It would
have taxed livestock farmers for the emissions from their farm animals. The government was
mostly concerned with methane’s contribution to greenhouse gases. And methane comes from,
you know, animal burps. The New Zealand government would have brought in over $8 million to fund
research on greenhouse gases, but the tax, alas, did not pass.
Misconception #3: Australia has two times more kangaroos than people.
In fact, we don’t know how many kangaroos there are in Australia. The Australian Government’s
Department of Environment reports that there are over 34 million kangaroos there, but that
the number could be much higher as they don’t survey the entire continent. The current population
of Australia is about 23 million, though, so people are catching up to kangaroos. We're
going to getcha.
Misconception #4: Men take twice as many selfies as women.
This might be true for me, but this “statistic” seems to be a loose interpretation of a 2013
survey conducted by Samsung, which found that 17% of men admitted to taking selfies as opposed
to 10% of women. I would be among them. That’s not twice as many. Plus, it has nothing to
do with the number of selfies taken and everything to do with how many people admitted to taking
them.
Misconception #5: Smoking makes your nipples fall off.
In 2011, a plastic surgeon made headlines for saying, “Smokers who undergo breast
lifts are at great risk of losing their nipples.” Somehow, over time, the Internet simplified
and simplified that sentence until it meant that all smokers need to look out for their
nipples. That's not true, you guys. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons does recommend
that people quit smoking well before plastic surgery. But your nipples are okay.
Bonus Misconception: cigarettes do not contain whale vomit, like people on the Internet claim.
That substance being referred to, ambergris, has been illegal in the U.S. since the Endangered
Species Act of 1973.
Misconception #6: There are more people alive now than have ever lived before.
A demographer did some calculations in 2007 and estimated that over 106 billion people
have been born since the beginning of humanity, which he called 50,000 BCE. Our world population
is around 7 billion. So we’re a mere 6% of all the humans that have ever lived. But
don't worry, we'll get there.
Misconception #7: Women speak 7,000 words a day to men’s 2,000 words.
There are many different variations of this one on the Internet. We also read that apparently
women speak 20,000 words per day and men speak 7,000. So, in 2007, these claims were put
to the test in a study done by Arizona State University. The study found that both men
and women speak approximately 16,000 words a day. There was no statistically significant
difference between the amount both genders spoke.
Misconception #8: Internet Explorer users have lower IQs.
I didn't even know there were Internet Explorer users. In 2011, there was a study about this
supposed phenomenon that was reported on by reliable sources like CNN, the BBC, and NPR.
The company AptiQuant Psychometric Consulting Co. announced that they had surveyed 100,000
Internet users and had come to this conclusion. It turned out that the whole thing was a hoax
orchestrated by a web developer. #internet.
Misconception #9: Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were both assassinated as part
of the same conspiracy. This theory is very prevalent on the Internet
and involves pointing out similarities between the two former presidents. These similarities
include: Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy and Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln,
they were both shot by southerners, and their assassins were born in years ending with ‘39
(100 years apart).
A couple problems there. Lincoln did NOT have a secretary named Kennedy. John Wilkes Booth,
who shot Lincoln, was born in Maryland. And Lee Harvey Oswald WAS born in 1939, but Booth
was born in 1838.
And let’s finish with one very good reason to ignore spam e-mail...
Misconception #10: Nigeria has a prince. There are at least dozens of families still
claiming to be royals in small parts of Nigeria, but all of their royal power was stripped
in 1963 when Nigeria became a republic with a president. It's very sad.
Thank you for watching Misconceptions on Mental Floss on YouTube, which is made with the help
of all these wonderful, wonderful people. If you have a topic for an upcoming Misconceptions
episode that you would like to see, leave it in comments. I’m going to go track down
that “Nigerian prince” that I sent all my money to. I will see you guys next week!