Things you were wrong about being wrong about

August 19, 2021 5:31 PM

What did you confidently know was true, later belived to be false, but even later learned was true after all?

In other words, facts you confidently learned were misconceptions, only to discover later you were right all along?

Mostly interested in "common" knowledge, so things that you (and others) believed, then disbelieved, then (more recently) started to believe again.

I'm mostly interested in things which can be proven (e.g. science based) although thoughts about personal realations, religion, etc. are fair game.

There were a few examples hidden in these previous Asks: example 1 and example 2 where someone explained their misconception, only to be corrected with better facts.

Also interested in cases where you believed "A", later learned "B" was true, and finally realized that in fact "C" was the real answer.

posted by soylent00FF00 to Science & Nature (21 answers total)

Response by poster: While I agree about eggs, I think "things other people belived that you never did, and they later repented" should be off topic for this post. Stick to your mis-mis-conceptions, please.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 6:09 PM on August 19, 2021

As a young child, I thought pandas were bears, but then learned that they weren't. Then they were reclassified as bears. Koalas are still not bears, however.
posted by LionIndex at 6:21 PM on August 19, 2021 [23 favorites]

A trivial one but I used to brush my teeth rigorously with a soft bristle brush and my wife told me it was bad for my gums, so I eased up on the brushing pressure. My dentist later told me that brushing hard does not affect the gums.
posted by perhapses at 6:41 PM on August 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

My kid has a National Geographic dinosaurs book which says that there is no such thing as a brontosaurus. Apparently, according to the book, the scientist found the bones and thought they had discovered a new dinosaur and they named the brontosaurus, but it was really the apatosaurus. I was telling a friend about this, and expressing my disbelief that there was no brontosaurus and she said that actually they later went back and looked at things again and re-classifed the brontosaurus as a real dinosaur. I guess the book we had was a little bit out of date!
posted by ficbot at 7:21 PM on August 19, 2021 [10 favorites]

For the dessert tiramisù, I said tee-ruh-mee-SOO for years, then got corrected by a friend (with Italian roots, no less!) that everyone pronounces it wrong and it's really tee-ruh-MEE-soo, and then slowly realized that she was just wrong and it is, in fact, pronounced tee-ruh-mee-SOO. Wikipedia confirms.
posted by danceswithlight at 7:42 PM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

Pronouncing Aaron Copland's "Rodeo". I've gone from ROH-de-oh to roh-DAY-oh and back to ROH-de-oh.
posted by mefireader at 8:35 PM on August 19, 2021 [4 favorites]

When I was a kid I learned the fact that hot water freezes faster than folks water. I told my father who told me I was wrong. Later found out that it is a phenomenon and I was right! Though now apparently it's not fully confirmed and there's still some debate.

The other one was about comparing infinities. I argued for it in high school math class only to be shut down by the teacher. I thought they were right got a long time but recently read about how it's very possible! To be fair I was probably off topic and disruptive about it when I was 16, but still nice vindication.
posted by Carillon at 8:35 PM on August 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

When I was younger I thought cops were legally allowed to commit crimes and get away with it and then I got older and found out that wasn’t true and then I got even older and found out it was
posted by obliterati at 9:36 PM on August 19, 2021 [32 favorites]

Orca whales. First I learned that the name is a misnomer - they are dolphins! But then I learned that since all dolphins are, in fact, whales, Orca whales are whales, after all.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:40 PM on August 19, 2021 [8 favorites]

“A happy long term relationship such as a good marriage is — or can be — the ultimate source of happiness”. My own parents’ marriage was mythological in my childhood eyes (they married for love over family objections rooted in racism on both sides). Then they divorced and fucked up my view of marriage for decades. Screwed up one myself. Then I got therapy, got older, and tried again and couldn’t imagine being happier or more content.
posted by spitbull at 2:20 AM on August 20, 2021 [6 favorites]

I was a deeply depressed adolescent (suicide attempt at 12) who discovered relief at 14 when I began taking LSD. After years of tripping on weekends, I started taking microdoses every day and maintained a livable level of daily happiness. I believed that it saved my life and my sanity. I discontinued the microdosing in my 20s when I started taking legal antidepressants. I thought that maybe I had just convinced myself with BELIEF that the microdoses were effective. In the last few years, there has been evidence found that psychedelics do relieve depression and I was right all along.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 3:31 AM on August 20, 2021 [9 favorites]

It's trivial, but I've been proven wrong, then proven right, about the pronunciation of the name of the Hopi (indiginous North American community.) I'm pretty sure I trust the people who I now try to copy more than the people who convinced me I was wrong.

I now have questions about Copland's Rodeo. I guess I always just assumed it was meant to be in Spanish. I don't know why. Fun question!
posted by eotvos at 5:59 AM on August 20, 2021

Here’s the top one that springs to my mind. As a child I learned from my family that the U.S. Civil War was fought because of slavery. Later in high school (in California!) I was taught the BS “Lost Cause”, states rights version and thought that slavery only played a partial role. Nope, it was all about slavery, as evident in the writings from the time and the language included in the CSA state constitutions.
posted by El_Marto at 7:31 AM on August 20, 2021 [22 favorites]

When I was younger I thought cops were legally allowed to commit crimes and get away with it and then I got older and found out that wasn’t true and then I got even older and found out it was

I think the operative term is "legally." Cops do commit crimes and they do get away with it. That is a peculiarity of our criminal justice system, however, and the challenges associated with prosecuting cops. It does not necessarily mean they commit crimes "legally."
posted by John Borrowman at 9:19 AM on August 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

When I was a kid, I knew glass was a solid, because look at it, of course it is. Then I got older, and I learned that hey, actually glass is a liquid, it just flows very, very slowly, just look at how old window panes are thicker on bottom. Then I got even older (and got a chemistry degree) and learned that to use the word "glass" means to describe a solid in which the molecules are as disordered as a liquid, as opposed to a crystalline solid, and how the old window example actually just demonstrates that a) making a pane of glass by hand that is the same thickness throughout is hard, and b) of course when someone is installing a pane with uneven thickness, they'll most likely put the thicker part on bottom, it's simply less likely to tip out while you're putting stuff together that way. And careful attention to old windows will show that sometimes a pane WASN'T placed that way, so if you still believe glass is a liquid you'll also have to believe that it occasionally flows upwards or sideways.
posted by solotoro at 9:28 AM on August 20, 2021 [19 favorites]

Not a serious answer, but I was amused by the following (paraphrased): The foolish person believes that Frankenstein was the monster. The wise person knows that Frankenstein was not the monster. The enlightened person understands that Frankenstein was the monster.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:24 AM on August 20, 2021 [31 favorites]

The way you pronounce "gesundheit".
posted by aniola at 11:02 AM on August 20, 2021

I had this back-and-forth on the pronunciation of "Oregon". Or-ruh-gun, right? No, wait, Or-ruh-gawne? No, it's Or-ruh-gun.
posted by wanderingmind at 5:06 PM on August 20, 2021

I'm 60 years old, and only just the other day learned that the word "rig-a-ma-role", which I'd been using all my life, is actually a variant of the correct word "rig-ma-role". I am flabbergasted (which, fortunately, is the correct word).
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:58 PM on August 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

I am still not certain whether the Samoans played a trick on Margaret Mead or not. The prevailing opinion seems to go back and forth.

I am still not certain whether the Hawthorne effect has or has not been replicated.
posted by wittgenstein at 11:42 AM on August 21, 2021

It does not necessarily mean they commit crimes "legally."

Since a crime is by definition an illegal act, it is analytically impossible to commit a crime legally.

It is completely feasible to break the law without facing consequences for doing so, though; the likelihood of achieving this is reflective of the perpetrator's position in the prevailing power structure and/or their ability to maintain operational security.
posted by flabdablet at 10:27 PM on August 21, 2021 [1 favorite]