# Ever been shocked at what some people believe? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 18, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369 "2012-05-18T22:14:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/101 "2012-05-24T11:25:35Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > Someone always beats me. > > I came here to say that I’m shocked that people who should know better (ie those who work there) really seem to believe that there are more presentations to the Emergency Department when the moon is full. Up until this moment, I believed it. I thought it was supported by statistics. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/102 "2012-05-24T11:53:52Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It’s interesting I should read this now; just earlier today I was reading a book that commented on cuisine in England in the days of Elizabeth I, which commented that the cuisine of the day was amazingly, sickeningly sweet by modern standards; “Everything was glazed” pretty much sums it up. Meat, vegetables, bread, whatever, covered in sugar, as much sugar as you could afford. I would think that in those days, the average Joe couldn’t afford very much. Didn’t it take a month or more for a ship to bring it from the West Indies? ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/103 "2012-05-24T13:45:23Z")
I recently met someone who believed that Donald Trump would make a good president. No, really. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/104 "2012-05-24T15:23:43Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Up until this moment, I believed it. I thought it was supported by statistics. Me, too. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/105 "2012-05-24T15:40:26Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I’ve commented on this here before, but I gave a cat to my brother and his family. He returned the cat because my SIL said the cat was going to steal her baby’s breath and kill him. > > This was in 2011. > > I have no words. My grandmother was one of the most sensible people I’ve ever known, and believed this too. It wasn’t really an issue, though, since there weren’t any babies or cats in the house. I think she found cats creepy in general. I’ve always assumed the myth might have got started by someone seeing a cat sniffing the milk odor around a baby’s mouth and getting freaked out. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/106 "2012-05-24T16:20:36Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > I’ve always assumed the myth might have got started by someone seeing a cat sniffing the milk odor around a baby’s mouth and getting freaked out. [The Master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/983/whats-the-origin-of-the-myth-that-cats-can-suck-the-breath-out-of-babies) Myth, yes, but still probably not a good idea to let a cat cuddle up to an infant. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/107 "2012-05-24T16:44:23Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Honest, my parents brought me up to be polite. I don’t see why I shouldn’t thank people for taking the time to work with me. [I think that the defendant’s lawyer struck me because I was death qualified. > [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Death qualified? In selecting a jury for a capital case (one in which the death penalty may be sought by prosecutors) the prosecution is permitted to ask prospective members of the jury if they could vote for the death penalty, assuming the prosecution provided sufficient aggravating factors for the crime. In other words, the prosecution is allowed to strike, for cause, any potential jury member who has an objection to the death penalty and could not vote to apply it, period. A jury selected this way is said to be “death qualified,” and, frankly, a bad blow for the defense, since such juries are thought to be generally more pro-prosecution. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/108 "2012-05-24T16:48:51Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Me, too. 😕 [Nope, the Master has spoken, and it is not true.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/552/do-things-get-crazy-when-the-moon-is-full) As someone with a master’s degree in astronomy, I know that it couldn’t work. The tidal forces involved are so tiny, they can’t possibly cause any kind of effect. The difference between the tidal forces at new or full moon and the moon at other phases is even tinier than that. If tidal forces were involved, we’d expect to see a difference between when the moon is at perigee versus apogee- we don’t. With street lighting, I really doubt that more people are out and about at night during the full moon than would be otherwise. Most people couldn’t even tell you without Googling what phase the moon is in right now, nor could they tell you when a full moon rises and sets. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/109 "2012-05-24T17:10:09Z")
A co-worker once asked how long it took to form a diamond, having just gotten a big one in an engagement ring. I said it depended on temperature and pressure and so forth, but getting on for millions of years for it to occur naturally. Another co-worker spun around, narrowed her eyes, and said, “that is NOT TRUE! The earth is only 5,000 years old! You need to _do your research._” I get that there are Biblical literalists and such all over, but this chick was more of a New Age type. I figured she’d have _different_ moronic beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/110 "2012-05-24T18:22:39Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > [Nope, the Master has spoken, and it is not true.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/552/do-things-get-crazy-when-the-moon-is-full) > > As someone with a master’s degree in astronomy, I know that it couldn’t work. The tidal forces involved are so tiny, they can’t possibly cause any kind of effect. The difference between the tidal forces at new or full moon and the moon at other phases is even tinier than that. If tidal forces were involved, we’d expect to see a difference between when the moon is at perigee versus apogee- we don’t. > > With street lighting, I really doubt that more people are out and about at night during the full moon than would be otherwise. Most people couldn’t even tell you without Googling what phase the moon is in right now, nor could they tell you when a full moon rises and sets. If it were true, wouldn’t have less to do with the astrophysics of moon’s effect on tides and people, and more to do with the psychology of people e.g. expecting they should act like idiots during a full moon? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/111 "2012-05-24T18:48:00Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > If it were true, wouldn’t have less to do with the astrophysics of moon’s effect on tides and people, and more to do with the psychology of people e.g. expecting they should act like idiots during a full moon? But even that doesn’t work, since most people aren’t aware of it when there is a full moon. If you asked a bunch of random people when the last full moon was, or when the next one will be, I’d bet that most of them wouldn’t know unless they Googled it. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/112 "2012-05-24T19:00:19Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It’s interesting I should read this now; just earlier today I was reading a book that commented on cuisine in England in the days of Elizabeth I, which commented that the cuisine of the day was amazingly, sickeningly sweet by modern standards; “Everything was glazed” pretty much sums it up. Meat, vegetables, bread, whatever, covered in sugar, as much sugar as you could afford. Yes and no … to be honest, medieval and renaissance foods for the upper crust were all about the conspicuous consumption. I could wander through my copy of [Cariadoc’s Miscellany](http://www.pbm.com/%7Elindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html) or the books on the [Medieval and Rennaisance Food page](http://www.pbm.com/%7Elindahl/food.html) and pull all sorts of recipes that have almost nothing in the way of sugar or honey in them. Yes there is a class of banquet food that is served ‘endoree’ or glazed with sugar, but as I said, they are for banquets and not something that the common person would eat with any amount of frequency. > [@TonySinclair](#): > > I would think that in those days, the average Joe couldn’t afford very much. Didn’t it take a month or more for a ship to bring it from the West Indies? No, sugarcane was present in India and Persia, which was the medieval source for sugar other than honey. It was still fairly expensive, which is why it was part of the whole conspicuous consumption deal. It was also used as a spice rather than a sweetener - honey was frequently the common sweetening agent. > [@Bricker](#): > > In selecting a jury for a capital case (one in which the death penalty may be sought by prosecutors) the prosecution is permitted to ask prospective members of the jury if they could vote for the death penalty, assuming the prosecution provided sufficient aggravating factors for the crime. In other words, the prosecution is allowed to strike, for cause, any potential jury member who has an objection to the death penalty and could not vote to apply it, period. > > A jury selected this way is said to be “death qualified,” and, frankly, a bad blow for the defense, since such juries are thought to be generally more pro-prosecution. Yup, sorry for not explaining it. Though in a few cases I would volunteer to pull the switch as well. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/113 "2012-05-24T19:20:02Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > But even that doesn’t work, since most people aren’t aware of it when there is a full moon. If you asked a bunch of random people when the last full moon was, or when the next one will be, I’d bet that most of them wouldn’t know unless they Googled it. I wouldn’t think that awareness would be necessary, though. But again I am not suggesting that it is true, just that _if_ it were true, it is not necessarily related to the tides. The most likely explanation is confirmation bias among the hospital staff. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/114 "2012-05-24T19:48:38Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > A jury selected this way is said to be “death qualified,” and, frankly, a bad blow for the defense, since such juries are thought to be generally more pro-prosecution. > [@aruvqan](#): > > Yup, sorry for not explaining it. Though in a few cases I would volunteer to pull the switch as well. Thanks for the explanation. I thought maybe it was _disqualified_ with a lithp. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gunnergoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e95f7d/32.png) [@gunnergoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gunnergoz)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/115 "2012-05-24T20:01:57Z")
I met a woman in her 50’s recently (an employee of a notions store my wife frequents) who is convinced that a major rock band member is in love with her and has been for years, only he won’t admit to their love publicly because his life is in danger from his present wife, who is murderously jealous. This woman attends all the band’s appearances that she can afford to go to, including one recently in the UK…and yet she is so impoverished that she lives in a trailer without running hot water. When asked as to how she knows this rock band player loves her, she replies that she can see him looking at her in the crowd. She admits they have met only momentarily and the pair have never had a private moment together, but this does not stop her from thinking that the man really is in love with her. Because of this, she refuses to make herself available to meet any other men and lives alone, almost a hermit apart from work. Seems like some sort of obsessive delusion to me. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/116 "2012-05-24T21:12:30Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’ve seen the effect white sugar has on people who aren’t addicted to it yet, and it’s scary. I find this belief pretty shocking > [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > One of my coworkers who was once a police officer thinks that cop means Citizen On Patrol. Dear lord, I have a friend who believes; COP = constable on partrol Golf = gentlemen only, ladies forbidden fuck = fornication under consent of king and probably a dozen more of these type of fake word origins. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/117 "2012-05-24T21:24:53Z")
I think I have written about this before on the **Dope** , but for your entertainment I will repeat it. I was never really given the “Birds and Bees” talk, but like any other guy who didn’t have it, I learned how one gets a girl pregnant in the boys’ bathroom. Here’s where the lack of the rest of it caused a lot of angst for me: Until someone informed me otherwise, I thought that once you got a girl pregnant, you HAD to keep doing it, or else she might deliver just a leg or an arm. It pains me to admit it, but there you go. Are any of you shocked? 🙂 Quasi ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/118 "2012-05-24T22:05:53Z")
My cousin told me she thought babies were made via smooshing belly buttons together, and that the belly buttons were a conduit for … something. Because when she saw other girls pretending their dolls were “doing it” they basically rubbed the two dolls’ midsections together. Then again, kids pick up all sorts of weird ideas about the birds & the bees. (_Rant about importance of sex ed goes here_.) I know a disturbing number of older women (50s and 60s … well, knowing them they’re lying) [who believe](http://www.alderbrooke.com/images/food-combining-chart-front.jpg)in [Food Combining](http://bodyecology.com/articles/food_combining_optimal_health_and_weight.php). Samples include: - no fruits on an empty stomach, nor immediately after a meal (:dubious:) - don’t eat meat and potatoes at the same meal, and wait 3 hours after eating a grain-based meal before you have a protein meal. - do not drink cool or cold water with your meal, and avoid all water for at least 15 minutes before you eat or 1 hour after a meal (… \*or? not and \*… ?) One of them gave me so much shit at some get-together because she saw me with strawberries and cold cuts on my plate. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/119 "2012-05-24T22:32:40Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > A cow-orker didn’t know that meat was animals’ muscle tissue. He just thought that “meat” was something that animals had inside them that had no other function than to eat. I actually thought this until highschool when my stepfather explained it. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369/120 "2012-05-24T22:43:56Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > My father believes he can, and has, cured cancer. ALL cancer. All you need to do is follow his dietary guidelines, which involve an ever-changing series of supplements. It started with shark cartilage, but he’s now on something like 50 capsules a day with various substances, including selenium and cayenne pepper. Oh, and some magic activated water he buys for a fortune from some back-blocks crank. > For himself I don’t care so much, but he peddles this crap to everyone he meets, including his fellow retirement home residents, and his older sister (now dead). I work with a guy just like this. He’s not unintelligent, but he buys every right wing anti-Obama email list point ever (supposedly they built a 8 bajillion dollar tunnel from the Mumbai airport to his hotel so he wouldn’t be vulnerable to terrorist attack, then cancelled the trip after the tunnel had been built, all on our dollar! And when he went… I forget somewhere, he took 8 aircraft carrier groups as his personal taxi! Oh Obama, you and your crazy spending! :rolleyes: ) Anywho, he believes the craziest health nuttiness I have ever heard. Apple seeds cure cancer…all cancer, but big Pharma doesn’t want you to know because they can’t make money off of it. Also they can cure cancer in Germany right now but the U.S. won’t approve it, not sure why. He’s 72 or so and twice divorced with no life except work (which he is a millionaire and only works for the human contact), I’m pretty sure his belief of such nonsense reassures him he won’t die alone soon or something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-shocked-at-what-some-people-believe/622369.md?page=7)