Humans only use ten percent of their brains? Although it has been scientifically proven, people all around the world continue to believe this far-fetched claim. Made popular various times in media throughout the years, the "ten-percent" claim has been one of those bizarre facts that everyone thought was puzzling to hear; whether the viewer read it in national magazines, such as U.S. Satellite Broadcasting or seeing it on TV during The Secret Lives of Men. Although we would all love to believe we have more brain power capabilities than currently present, one should look to the six principles of scientific thinking in order to truly evaluate this claim. The main principle of scientific thinking to observe in this situation is extraordinary claims. Before looking into extraordinary claims, we have to realize that with any claim, evidence is needed to back support what it is saying. So using this phrase, it would only make sense that an extraordinary claim must be backed with extraordinary evidence. While reading the webpage on this extraordinary claim, I did not find any believable extraordinary evidence to support this claim. A few scientists, such as Craig Karges, have made this extraordinary claim, giving people belief in the claim, but once again no evidence was supported with their claims. In addition, with the use of functional MRI and various other brain-activity detecting machines, it has been proven that indeed we do not use only ten percent of our brains.
All in all, the principles of scientific thinking are very important to consider when analyzing a claim or any sort of scientific proposal. Without these principles, our own personal biases, such as confirmation bias, would blind us from the evidence that is important to evaluate the claim.
Link for website: http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp
Link for picture: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dtEq2pwr-Ao/TZfsK3DEJ-I/AAAAAAAAAEA/QtCOqoOhLlg/s1600/Picture+28.png
Addition article about the myth: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-we-really-use-only-10
Why do you think this myth continues to live on in our culture, despite all of the evidence to the contrary? How do you think this myth affects our culture and everyday life, or has it affected your own life?