# What Urban Myths seem to hold on for years or decades even when disproven **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2026, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852 "2026-06-12T19:02:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/181 "2026-06-16T14:26:30Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > If synchronicity is a myth, then that would indicate that they were all bad observers. Could be confirmation bias. You have a preconceived notion, you take notice of all the instances that support the notion and ignore the ones that don’t. Confirmation bias happens to the best of us. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/182 "2026-06-16T14:27:47Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You also sometimes see “blue raspberry” things: I don’t think blue raspberries are actually a thing, but it distinguishes them from cherry and strawberry which are also red. Yes Blue raspberry popsicles were a thing when I was a kid. They called them “Sky Blue”, and it was a while before I realized that the flavor was actually raspberry, I’ve also seen vanilla ice cream colored blue in order to jazz it up. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/183 "2026-06-16T14:37:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think blue raspberries are actually a thing There is a type of dark blue, almost purple raspberry, called [‘whitebark’ or ‘blackcap’ raspberries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_leucodermis). Or sometimes even called ‘blue raspberries’, but they’re darker than the electric blue of popsicles and other advertised ‘blue raspberry’ flavors. As a kid I used to pick them and blackberries growing wild in a wooded area behind our house. When ripe they look a lot like blackberries, but they’re blunter in shape, not as conical as blackberries. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Rubus_leucodermis.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Rubus_leucodermis.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/184 "2026-06-16T14:57:25Z")
There’s always Blue Corn, and the corn chips, nachos, and taco shells made from them > **[Blue corn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_corn)** > > Blue corn (also known as Hopi maize, Yoeme Blue, Tarahumara Maiz Azul, and Rio Grande Blue) is a group of several closely related varieties of flint corn grown in Mexico, the Southwestern United States, and the Southeastern United States. It is one of the main types of corn used for the traditional Southern and Central Mexican food known as tlacoyo. > It was originally developed by the Hopi, the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande, and several Southeastern tribes, including the Cherokee. It remains ... ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/185 "2026-06-16T15:15:45Z")
> [@solost](#): > > There is a type of dark blue, almost purple raspberry, called [‘whitebark’ or ‘blackcap’ raspberries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_leucodermis). Or sometimes even called ‘blue raspberries’, but they’re darker than the electric blue of popsicles and other advertised ‘blue raspberry’ flavors. As a kid I used to pick them and blackberries growing wild in a wooded area behind our house. When ripe they look a lot like blackberries, but they’re blunter in shape, not as conical as blackberries. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > There’s always Blue Corn, and the corn chips, nachos, and taco shells made from them I would call both of those things purple. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/186 "2026-06-16T15:20:13Z")
I agree. Just as blueberries also aren’t really blue, more of a purple (especially their juice), there really isn’t any natural food that is truly blue in color. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/187 "2026-06-16T15:31:00Z")
> [@solost](#): > > When ripe they look a lot like blackberries, but they’re blunter in shape, not as conical as blackberries. Black raspberries look even more like blackberries. They’re most easily distinguished after they’re picked: Raspberries (of any color) have a deep indentation where the stem attached. And even beyond food, blue pigments are quite rare in nature. Most things that look blue, like bird feathers, are due to diffraction or other optical processes, not pigments. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/188 "2026-06-16T15:31:18Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Confirmation bias happens to the best of us. Yeah, I’ve noticed that. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/189 "2026-06-16T15:46:29Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > There wasn’t any blue until some time in the late 90s or early 00 That’s not true. When I was a kid in the 1970s, you could buy Marino’s Italian Ices from the ice cream trucks. Once of my favorite flavors was called “blue gelato” and was essentially the same flavor as all the blue raspberry stuff out today and had the same bright blue color. I was eating those as early as 1976, maybe sooner. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/190 "2026-06-16T15:53:19Z")
> [@Disinfectus](#): > > That’s not true. When I was a kid in the 1970s, you could buy Marino’s Italian Ices from the ice cream trucks. Once of my favorite flavors was called “blue gelato” and was essentially the same flavor as all the blue raspberry stuff out today and had the same bright blue color. I was eating those as early as 1976, maybe sooner. Heck, the “blue raspberry” popsicles I bought were available in the 1960s. And not just the late 1960s ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/191 "2026-06-16T16:05:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And I once saw an ice cream called “blue moon”, that was flavored. I couldn’t figure out what it was flavored, but it was definitely flavored something, and blue somehow didn’t seem out of place for it. There’s an ice cream variety in many (Italian-)German ice cream parlors called “Schlumpfeis” (smurf ice cream) which has the color of a smurf, but I don’t know how it tastes because I never could get myself into trying it. ---
**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:** [June 16, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/192 "2026-06-16T16:07:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > blue pigments are quite rare in nature. Most things that look blue, like bird feathers, are due to diffraction Quoting for truth. Blue Jay feathers, the sky on a summer afternoon … it’s not real!! > [@ricepad](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > Confirmation bias happens to the best of us. > > Yeah, I’ve noticed that. Okay, that was funny as hell. Well played. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/193 "2026-06-16T16:08:09Z")
I don’t know if it’s been mentioned here: “Sugar makes kids hyperactive”. It is not and never has been true. All my kids’ teachers through elementary school believed and repeated this nonsense. I had an English teacher in college who described he and his wife’s herculean efforts to raise their kids sugar free. The study claiming this was debunked shortly after coming out. Yet this silly claim lives on. So, why do kids get loud, excited, “hyper” when they “have sugar”? Because sugary treats corralate to holidays, and parties, fun and exciting activies. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/194 "2026-06-16T16:49:04Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Are there any about blue colored junk food? I’ve got a half-remembered memory from the 20th century that meat that was not for human consumption would be dyed blue. Is that the case, or was it just a myth? ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/195 "2026-06-16T16:57:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > If synchronicity is a myth, then that would indicate that they were all bad observers. Heh, I just spent the whole of last week taking biological measurements and getting all excited because I thought I could see the impact I predicted. Today I did the analysis. The ‘bias’ I could see was different in every replicate, just an artifact of the methodology, and there’s no evidence of an effect at all. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/196 "2026-06-16T17:18:54Z")
Our Fearless Leader addressed this in 2002 > **[The Straight Dope - Chicago Reader](https://chicagoreader.com/news/the-straight-dope-283/)** > > A while back I read an article about how sperm may be an antidepressant for people who ingest it in one way or another. But that’s not my question. What interests me is that a few months later, I read an article about the scientist who proposed that... > [@Filbert](#): > > I’ve heard the myth that women sync menstrual cycles with those they’re close to/living with with from a medical doctor, as well as multiple other people, all of whom were completely convinced it was a real phenomenon. > > It’s nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/197 "2026-06-16T17:48:49Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Anyway, one very robust urban myth that springs to mind is the claim that the biblical account of the Star of Bethlehem appearing around the birth of Jesus refers to some astronomical phenomenon that really historically occurred As a kid, back when I believed all this, I thought the Star was hovering over Bethlehem. So you’d walk to the east, to see our glorious savior’s birth, and when it was right overhead, you’d know when you got there. Even as a kid, I knew no astronomical phenomenon would hover. Comets, supernovae, bright stars, would eventually set. In the west. And they knew it even 2000 years ago. So the Star had to be divinely miraculous in nature. Duh! (later, I ‘learned’ it could have been an alien spacecraft with a bright light. They told us the most strange stuff when I was young!) I like Clarke’s short story, but it’s just as much happy hooey scientifically as divine light. > [@solost](#): > > _Of course_ there is a record-- at the very least it’s called a report card; I still have mine, One year they said I “needed to use time wisely”. And you know what? It’s still true! ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/198 "2026-06-16T17:57:23Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I still have mine, One year they said I “needed to use time wisely”. And you know what? It’s still true! Yeah, back in grade school I got a similar criticism. I was given some exercises to work on to try to improve on it. One of these days I’ll get around to doing them… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/199 "2026-06-16T18:05:17Z")
> [@Sylvanz](#): > > So, why do kids get loud, excited, “hyper” when they “have sugar”? Because sugary treats corralate to holidays, and parties, fun and exciting activies. And also because kids get loud, excited, and hyper when they don’t have sugar, too. That’s how kids are. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2026, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852/200 "2026-06-16T18:11:44Z")
A food myth I still hear pretty often on cooking and recipe shows and videos: searing the outside of a cut of meat seals in the juices. No, searing meat adds flavor, but nothing more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-urban-myths-seem-to-hold-on-for-years-or-decades-even-when-disproven/1030852.md?page=11)