Talk:List of common misconceptions

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Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34: 30 days

Section sizes

Section size for List of common misconceptions (63 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	817	817
Arts and culture	23	162,759
Business	10,907	10,907
Food and cooking	14,553	36,896
Food and drink history	16,671	16,671
Microwave ovens	5,672	5,672
Film and television	4,706	4,706
Language	7,029	20,051
English language	13,022	13,022
Law, crime, and military	9,939	28,459
United States	18,520	18,520
Literature	3,363	3,363
Fine arts	4,281	4,281
Music	48	15,204
Classical music	7,923	7,923
Popular music	7,233	7,233
Religion	17	26,112
Buddhism	1,244	1,244
Christianity	16,349	16,349
Islam	6,661	6,661
Judaism	1,841	1,841
Sports	5,683	5,683
Video games	7,074	7,074
History	14	95,453
Ancient	11,714	11,714
Middle Ages	16,631	16,631
Early modern	15,639	15,639
Modern	20,335	51,455
United States	31,120	31,120
Science, technology, and mathematics	160	319,612
Astronomy and spaceflight	15,060	15,060
Biology	67	88,151
Mammals	17,655	17,655
Birds	7,018	7,018
Other vertebrates	8,794	8,794
Invertebrates	14,811	14,811
Plants	5,948	5,948
Evolution and paleontology	33,858	33,858
Chemistry and materials science	7,199	7,199
Computing and the Internet	8,640	8,640
Economics	9,608	9,608
Earth and environmental sciences	18,742	18,742
Geography	2,196	2,196
Human body and health	22,777	94,157
Disease and preventive healthcare	22,987	22,987
Nutrition, food, and drink	24,381	29,204
Alcoholic beverages	4,823	4,823
Sexuality and reproduction	13,799	13,799
Skin and hair	5,390	5,390
Inventions	7,659	7,659
Mathematics	10,354	10,354
Physics	19,081	19,081
Psychology and neuroscience	4,776	27,009
Mental disorders	6,388	6,388
Brain	10,493	10,493
Senses	5,352	5,352
Toxicology	7,123	7,123
Transportation	4,473	4,473
See also	480	480
References	30	30
Sources	1,825	1,825
Further reading	1,770	1,770
External links	491	491
Total	583,237	583,237

List of common misconceptions is a former featured list candidate. Please view the link under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. Once the objections have been addressed you may resubmit the article for featured list status.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
October 29, 2006	Articles for deletion	No consensus
March 24, 2009	Articles for deletion	Kept
February 8, 2011	Articles for deletion	No consensus
April 25, 2011	Featured list candidate	Not promoted
September 26, 2018	Articles for deletion	Kept
December 22, 2023	Articles for deletion	Kept
Current status: Former featured list candidate

Lists Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Lists, an attempt to structure and organize all list pages on Wikipedia. If you wish to help, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.ListsWikipedia:WikiProject ListsTemplate:WikiProject ListsList articles
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Astronomy Mid‑importance

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Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Biology Mid‑importance

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Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Christianity Mid‑importance

	Christianity portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Christianity, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Christianity on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ChristianityWikipedia:WikiProject ChristianityTemplate:WikiProject ChristianityChristianity articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Economics Low‑importance

	Business and economics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Economics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Economics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EconomicsWikipedia:WikiProject EconomicsTemplate:WikiProject EconomicsEconomics articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Evolutionary biology Low‑importance

	Evolutionary biology portal This article is part of WikiProject Evolutionary biology, an attempt at building a useful set of articles on evolutionary biology and its associated subfields such as population genetics, quantitative genetics, molecular evolution, phylogenetics, and evolutionary developmental biology. It is distinct from the WikiProject Tree of Life in that it attempts to cover patterns, process and theory rather than systematics and taxonomy. If you would like to participate, there are some suggestions on this page (see also Wikipedia:Contributing FAQ for more information) or visit WikiProject Evolutionary biologyEvolutionary biologyWikipedia:WikiProject Evolutionary biologyTemplate:WikiProject Evolutionary biologyEvolutionary biology articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Food and drink Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Food and drink, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of food and drink related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Food and drinkWikipedia:WikiProject Food and drinkTemplate:WikiProject Food and drinkFood and drink articles

Low

This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Food and Drink task list:

To edit this page, select here

Here are some tasks you can do for WikiProject Food and drink:

Help bring these Top Importance articles currently B Status or below up to GA status: Agaricus bisporus (i.e. mushroom), Beef, Bread, Curry, Drink, Food, Ham and eggs, Soy sauce, Sushi, Yogurt
Bring these Top Importance articles currently at GA status up to FA status: Beer, French cuisine, Sugar
Bring these High Importance articles currently at GA status up to FA status: Apple, Burger King, Fish
Participate in project-related deletion discussions.
Delete unrelated trivia sections found in articles. Please review WP:Trivia and WP:Handling trivia to learn how to do this.
Add the {{WikiProject Food and drink}} project banner to food and drink related articles and content to help bring them to the attention of members. For a complete list of banners for WikiProject Food and drink and its child projects, select here.
Provide photographs and images for Category:Wikipedia requested images of food
Consider joining this project's Assessment task force. List any project ideas in this section

Note: These lists are transcluded from the project's tasks pages.

History Mid‑importance

	History portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject History, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the subject of History on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.HistoryWikipedia:WikiProject HistoryTemplate:WikiProject Historyhistory articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

History of Science Mid‑importance

	History of science portal This article is part of the History of Science WikiProject, an attempt to improve and organize the history of science content on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. You can also help with the History of Science Collaboration of the Month.History of ScienceWikipedia:WikiProject History of ScienceTemplate:WikiProject History of Sciencehistory of science articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Islam Mid‑importance

	Islam portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Islam, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Islam-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IslamWikipedia:WikiProject IslamTemplate:WikiProject IslamIslam-related articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Judaism Low‑importance

	Judaism portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Judaism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Judaism-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.JudaismWikipedia:WikiProject JudaismTemplate:WikiProject JudaismJudaism articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Literature Low‑importance

	Literature portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Literature, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Literature on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LiteratureWikipedia:WikiProject LiteratureTemplate:WikiProject LiteratureLiterature articles
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Medicine Low‑importance

	Medicine portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Medicine, which recommends that medicine-related articles follow the Manual of Style for medicine-related articles and that biomedical information in any article use high-quality medical sources. Please visit the project page for details or ask questions at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine.MedicineWikipedia:WikiProject MedicineTemplate:WikiProject Medicinemedicine articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Psychology Low‑importance

	Psychology portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Psychology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Psychology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PsychologyWikipedia:WikiProject PsychologyTemplate:WikiProject Psychologypsychology articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Skepticism High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Skepticism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science, pseudoscience, pseudohistory and skepticism related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SkepticismWikipedia:WikiProject SkepticismTemplate:WikiProject SkepticismSkepticism articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Religion Low‑importance

	Religion portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Religion, a project to improve Wikipedia's articles on Religion-related subjects. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the wikiproject page for more details.ReligionWikipedia:WikiProject ReligionTemplate:WikiProject ReligionReligion articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Sexology and sexuality Low‑importance

	Human sexuality portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sexology and sexuality, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of human sexuality on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Sexology and sexualityWikipedia:WikiProject Sexology and sexualityTemplate:WikiProject Sexology and sexualitySexology and sexuality articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Sports

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sports, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of sport-related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SportsWikipedia:WikiProject SportsTemplate:WikiProject Sportssports articles

To-do list:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests :
Requested articles (Sports)
Requested articles (Association football)
Requested articles (Association football women)
Requested articles (Motor sports)
Requested articles (Estonian sportspeople)
Assess : newly added and existing articles, maybe nominate some good B-class articles for GA; independently assess some as A-class, regardless of GA status.
Cleanup :
* Sport governing body (this should-be-major article is in a shameful state)
* Field hockey (History section needs sources and accurate information - very vague at the moment.)
* Standardize Category:American college sports infobox templates to use same font size and spacing.
* Sport in the United Kingdom - the Popularity section is incorrect and unsourced. Reliable data is required.
* Fix project template and/or "to do list" Current version causes tables of content to be hidden unless/until reader chooses "show."
Expand : Professional sports (crucial article explaining the salaried undertaking of sports)
* Sport industry (currently a sub-stub)
Photo : for pages listed in Category:Wikipedia requested images of sports and games and sub-categories.
Stubs : work on articles in Category:Sports stubs
Update : List of world sports championships
Other :
- Translate the page of sport in each country from corresponding article in other language Wikipedia to English Wikipedia which was marked in red.
- Categorize: Gather all (major/olympic) sports to be part of this project
- RfCs: answer requests for comment

Technology

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Technology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TechnologyWikipedia:WikiProject TechnologyTemplate:WikiProject TechnologyTechnology articles

Popular culture (inactive)

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Popular culture, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.Popular cultureWikipedia:WikiProject Popular cultureTemplate:WikiProject Popular culturePopular culture articles

Culture High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Culture, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of culture on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CultureWikipedia:WikiProject CultureTemplate:WikiProject Cultureculture articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

"The end of Wikipedia as we know it?". Irish Times (subscription required). 8 August 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2013. Here's our Wikipedia Articles Worth Reading (first listed)
Toby Manhire (February 14, 2013). "Common misconceptions: 10 of the best". New Zealand Listener. Archived from the original on February 21, 2013. Retrieved February 21, 2013. ... one of its best pages ...
Alexis Kleinman, Maxwell Strachan (January 14, 2015). "The 49 Most Entertaining Wikipedia Entries Ever Created". The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
Nick Douglas (August 15, 2017). "Get Smart With Wikipedia's List of Common Misconceptions". LifeHacker. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
Ellie Bate (November 22, 2017). "What Totally Fascinating Wikipedia Pages Have Kept You Reading All Night?". BuzzFeed.
Cecily Mauran (February 5, 2022). "10 Wikipedia rabbit holes to fall down instead of doomscrolling". Mashable.

List of common misconceptions has been linked from multiple high-traffic websites.

All prior and subsequent edits to the article are noted in its revision history.

Table
4 January 2011	xkcd	link	Traffic
12 January 2011	Boing Boing	link	Traffic
3 February 2011	i am bored	link	Traffic