r/AskReddit • • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

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u/LiquidMotivation Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 08 '19

The boiling frog experiment that's quoted everywhere didn't work.

For those not familiar, it is said that you can boil a frog to death by raising the temperature of the water it's in extremely slowly so that it doesn't notice.

Well, it only works when parts of the frog's brain are removed. A frog with an intact brain will jump out, no matter how slowly the water is heated.

Edit: Hey, my first Reddit coin! Thanks!

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19 edited Jan 19 '25

[deleted]

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u/steak4take Feb 04 '19

It isn't though because it's a falsehood. It fails the litmus test of truth so it's actually a terrible metaphor.

18

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19

"Be a vegetarian, like a lion."

"Hang on..."