Top 20 misconceptions people believe are true

Thought Mount Everest was the tallest mountain and coffee was made from beans? Think again...

(Getty)

From childhood we have been told that Mount Everest is the tallest mountain, we can’t have sweets because they will make us hyperactive and we should wear a hat if it is cold.

Now experts have dispelled these commonly held assumptions and revealed a list of modern life’s top misconceptions, or “faux facts”, as Ripley’s Believe It or Not! termed them.

The museum of curiosities in London’s Piccadilly Circus commissioned the study and compiled the list of myths.

Other misconceptions are that the Great Wall of China can be seen from space and sushi means “raw fish”.

A spokesman for Ripley’s said: “If you’re told something enough times, you’re sure to start believing it.

“The misconceptions in this list are all pretty plausible, so it’s understandable that many Brits will have read it and been certain it’s true, with many of us being told these from an early age.

“Unbelievably, all of these commonly believed facts are in fact misconceptions.

“We’ve found this research really interesting as the whole Ripley’s attraction is filled with exhibits that have the ‘Believe It or Not!’ factor. As our founder Robert Ripley used to say, it is often the strangest things that are true.”

But no one should be ashamed to admit they have been caught out by one of these misconceptions as 82 per cent of UK adults have admitted they had believed one of the “facts” on the list.