Talk:List of common misconceptions

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Inclusion Criteria A rigid consensus on inclusion criteria for this list has not been reached. It is preferred to propose new items on the talk page first. Any proposed new entries to the article must at least fulfill the following: The common misconception's main topic has an article of its own. The item is reliably sourced, both with respect to the factual contents of the item and the fact that it is a common misconception. The common misconception is mentioned in its topic article with sources. The common misconception is current, as opposed to ancient or obsolete. If you have an item to add that does not fulfill these criteria but you still think should be included, please suggest it on the talk page with your rationale for inclusion.

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Article milestones Date Process Result October 29, 2006 Articles for deletion No consensus March 24, 2009 Articles for deletion Kept February 8, 2011 Articles for deletion No consensus April 25, 2011 Featured list candidate Not promoted September 26, 2018 Articles for deletion Kept December 22, 2023 Articles for deletion Kept Current status: Former featured list candidate

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This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations: "The end of Wikipedia as we know it?". Irish Times (subscription required). 8 August 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2013. Here's our Wikipedia Articles Worth Reading (first listed) Toby Manhire (February 14, 2013). "Common misconceptions: 10 of the best". New Zealand Listener. Archived from the original on February 21, 2013. Retrieved February 21, 2013. ... one of its best pages ... Alexis Kleinman, Maxwell Strachan (January 14, 2015). "The 49 Most Entertaining Wikipedia Entries Ever Created". The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 8, 2015. Nick Douglas (August 15, 2017). "Get Smart With Wikipedia's List of Common Misconceptions". LifeHacker. Retrieved September 10, 2017. Ellie Bate (November 22, 2017). "What Totally Fascinating Wikipedia Pages Have Kept You Reading All Night?". BuzzFeed. Cecily Mauran (February 5, 2022). "10 Wikipedia rabbit holes to fall down instead of doomscrolling". Mashable.

To-do list for List of common misconceptions: edit · history · watch · refresh · Updated 2022-12-05 Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Copyedit : Remove instances of "misconception" and other such phrasing.

Section sizes Section size for List of common misconceptions (5 sections) Section name Byte count Prose size (words) Header Total Header Total (Top) 876 876 97 97 Lists 393 393 4 4 See also 540 540 0 0 Further reading 1,942 1,942 0 0 External links 501 501 0 0 Total 4,252 4,252 101 101

List of common misconceptions has been linked from multiple high-traffic websites. All prior and subsequent edits to the article are noted in its revision history. Table 4 January 2011 xkcd link Traffic 12 January 2011 Boing Boing link Traffic 3 February 2011 i am bored link Traffic

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Tariffs

[1] "more than half of all polled U.S. adults don't know what a tariff is" Benjamin (talk) 00:52, 11 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What is the misconception? Rollinginhisgrave (talk | contributions) 00:53, 11 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The misconception is that tariffs are paid by the exporting country when in fact tariffs are paid by the people who import the goods; the fees are then passed on to the consumer, so ultimately it's the consumer who pays the tariffs, not the exporting country.

I don't have cites at the moment to back this up, but they should be readily obtainable. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 13:53, 11 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"more than half of all polled U.S. adults don't know what a tariff is" The deficiencies of education in the United States are out of topic for this article. Dimadick (talk) 08:15, 11 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, there are an awful lot of sources that talk about this as a misconception. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 14:08, 13 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There is already an entry about tariffs at List_of_common_misconceptions_about_science,_technology,_and_mathematics#Economics. I think it is fine as it is, but welcome suggestions for improvement. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 17:21, 20 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to point out the "tariff" word is borrowed by Russian language (tarifikatsiya, tarif, etc.) as a Runglish-class word used for pricing in things like utility bills, phone bills etc. So, maybe "tariff" word misconception is about the origin of the word + the way how it ended up in different parts of the world? Thus... "historical". 81.89.66.133 (talk) 11:45, 18 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

food should be moved out of arts and culture

I wanted to read the section on microwaves to ensure that I wasn't beholden to any misconceptions in a discussion, and (remembering that it was in this page before the split, but not where) I went to science, technology, and mathematics; however, food falls under arts and culture despite the microwave ovens subsection being about the chemical mechanisms of an electronic device's operation. Given that individual facts about food could go into either (and one seeking out a specific fact could seek it out in either, and just ctrl+F'ing "microwave" no longer suffices), I think food deserves to go alongside them 82.69.12.232 (talk) 21:25, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This is a good example of a downside of splitting the article! Benjamin (talk) 21:34, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Chicks

[2] Most people think male chicks are raised for meat or or eggs, etc, only a tenth correctly think they're killed after hatching. Benjamin (talk) 21:33, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's nothing in the source indicating that "most people think male chicks are raised for meat or eggs". In fact, I don't think most consumers are too stupid to realize that male chicks cannot produce eggs. Furthermore, it's a survey of 1,012 people, hardly enough to be a representative sample. You haven't identified a common misconception. This is another example of this article being a crap magnet. Sundayclose (talk) 23:15, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Are we looking at the same page? See this image: [3] Benjamin (talk) 02:31, 23 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think the issue here is that if you ask people about a topic that they know nothing about, they will provide the wrong answer instead of simply saying that they don't know. That's different than having a large number of people thinking that they know something that is false.

"What do egg farmers do with the male chicks that hatch, since they can't be used for egg production?"

"Hmmm... I guess they raise them for meat?"

Mr. Swordfish (talk) 13:39, 23 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think misconceptions like this one are better to not bring up (on a whim, at least). A bit little too sensitive for a family friendly article. "Poor chickens" I would cry, say, 1/4 century ago. 81.89.66.133 (talk) 12:29, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

referring to USSR vs referring to Russians in movies

>ctrl+f

>"USSR"

>0 matches found

Every time a movie about USSR and Space Race/Moon Race mentions "[those] Russians" instead of "Soviets", it feels tad uncomfortable to me, since Baikonur was located outside of RSFSR (where Soviet Russia redirects to). Guess that goes into the historical misconceptions list. The "common" part? Movies. Hard to explain further, so I just leave it here like that, I guess. 81.89.66.133 (talk) 11:54, 18 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Son ar chistr

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_ar_chistr#Misconceptions Benjamin (talk) 06:33, 27 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]