# What's the most obvious lie you've ever believed past childhood? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616 "2020-02-08T05:57:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![VinylEsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@VinylEsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylEsto)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/1 "2020-02-08T05:57:57Z")
I believed in the “you can taste sweet things on your balls” myth for the better part of a year. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/2 "2020-02-08T07:36:40Z")
What? ---
**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:** [February 8, 2020, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/3 "2020-02-08T07:38:50Z")
I was gonna say something about thunder, I dunno, maybe what causes lightning … totally lost my train of thought by the time I got to the end of the O.P. Taste what in the where now? ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/4 "2020-02-08T09:03:25Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I was gonna say something about thunder, I dunno, maybe what causes lightning … totally lost my train of thought by the time I got to the end of the O.P. > > Taste what in the where now? There’s a popular fact meme that says you can taste soy sauce poured on your testicles because apparently a 2013 study showed your testicles are home to taste receptors. The problem here being taste receptors don’t equal taste buds. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/5 "2020-02-08T12:59:39Z")
> [@VinylEsto](#): > > I believed in the “you can taste sweet things on your balls” myth for the better part of a year. I’d hate to know what you believed for the worse part of that year. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/6 "2020-02-08T14:02:48Z")
I was going to post something about American exceptionalism, but now I’m pretty much just adrift… ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/7 "2020-02-08T14:30:13Z")
Why did the OP persist in this belief for so long? For the curious, isn’t this the kinda thing that lends itself to a fairly quick determination? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/8 "2020-02-08T14:42:13Z")
Gives new meaning to the term dipping sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/9 "2020-02-08T15:11:42Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Why did the OP persist in this belief for so long? For the curious, isn’t this the kinda thing that lends itself to a fairly quick determination? Only for half the population. The rest of us have to take someone else’s word for it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/10 "2020-02-08T15:18:45Z")
For a long time I persisted in the belief that strength and weight limits on bridges was tested by driving bigger and bigger trucks over your balls. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/11 "2020-02-08T15:42:15Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > For a long time I persisted in the belief that strength and weight limits on bridges was tested by driving bigger and bigger trucks over your balls. OMG, you’re killing me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/12 "2020-02-08T15:55:52Z")
When I was in middle school, my mom told me that you could get pregnant without having sex. Something about how if bodily fluids are involved and your vagina is exposed, the fluids can find their way into your vagina and impregnate you. Since I never received any sex education (only abstinence education), it took me a while to be disabused of this notion. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/13 "2020-02-08T16:22:23Z")
Hmm. OP joined in 2017. One post then, and his second post, the OP. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/14 "2020-02-08T16:27:55Z")
Elaine was right. I don’t know how you guys put up with those things. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/15 "2020-02-08T16:52:14Z")
I was going to say the Holy Trinity, but that seems sort of inappropriate for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/16 "2020-02-08T17:01:43Z")
I’m pretty sure I believed the old “you eat ten spiders a year in your sleep” chestnut at some point. There are a lot of those. Perfectly smart people think that hair and fingernails grow after people die, or that humans only use ten percent of their brains, or that baby birds will be abandoned if you so much as lightly touch one, or that Einstein failed math. All these statements are false, but commonly believed, in part because there’s rarely a compelling reason to know better. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/17 "2020-02-08T17:03:25Z")
I sharted once. I could smell it, not taste it. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/18 "2020-02-08T17:05:35Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > When I was in middle school, my mom told me that you could get pregnant without having sex. Something about how if bodily fluids are involved and your vagina is exposed, the fluids can find their way into your vagina and impregnate you. Since I never received any sex education (only abstinence education), it took me a while to be disabused of this notion. This one’s definitely a lie? I’d swear I’ve read of this in reputable medical sources. Obviously any way semen can get into the vagina could possibly lead to pregnancy. Artificial insemination, for example. It might be that externally exposing semen to a vagina is an unlikely cause of pregnancy. And it might be that, in the majority of cases where somebody claims this happened to them, there actually was sex. But, is it actually a lie? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/19 "2020-02-08T17:08:26Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > When I was in middle school, my mom told me that you could get pregnant without having sex. Something about how if bodily fluids are involved and your vagina is exposed, the fluids can find their way into your vagina and impregnate you. Since I never received any sex education (only abstinence education), it took me a while to be disabused of this notion. More on this at > **[Can I get pregnant if I have sex without penetration?](https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/pregnancy/can-i-get-pregnant-if-i-have-sex-without-penetration/)** > > Find out how you could get pregnant even if you have not had sex (your partner's penis did not enter your vagina) and how to avoid getting pregnant like this. In part, "It’s possible for you to get pregnant without having sexual intercourse if, for example: sperm get into your vagina – for example, if you or your partner have semen or pre-ejaculate on your fingers and touch your vagina your partner ejaculates near your vagina your partner’s erect penis comes into contact with your body near your vagina The risk of getting pregnant in this way is very low because sperm can only live for a short time outside of the body. However, if you’re not planning a pregnancy, it’s important to know that it’s possible to get pregnant in this way." Since this is the UK government National Health Service, I’d be inclined to trust it. Am I naive? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616/20 "2020-02-08T17:13:29Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m pretty sure I believed the old “you eat ten spiders a year in your sleep” chestnut at some point. > . . … Don’t let these beliefs hold you back. Swallow as many spiders as you want. Nobody is stopping you but yourself. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-obvious-lie-youve-ever-believed-past-childhood/847616.md?page=2)