The unpowered fact

It's really hard to stamp out a good myth. Myths have story, making them more powerful than mere facts. ( Some recent examples )

All hard to correct, unless you can cite an authority like Snopes at someone — and even then, that corrects only one mythically engaged brain at a time. This is because the popular versions have story (even the 10% one, because it leads into the question of what the other 90% is doing). We are pattern-finding primates, and will find patterns even when they aren't there — thus, astrology; thus, gamblers' lore; thus, WMD in Iraq; thus, myths like the above.

Something to keep in mind when trying to disabuse people of cherished, but incorrect, beliefs. It really helps to give the correct facts a story, with a power as strong as the counterfactual story's. (Also something to keep in mind when creating your own stories.)

<glyph of trying not to jump up and down and shout THERE IS NO LEFT BRAIN/RIGHT BRAIN DIVISION! THERE ISN'T! THERE ISN'T!>

---L.