A warm hat is a good idea on a cold winter day. That's obviously true. But you've probably heard that we

lose most of our body heat through our heads. A US Army survival manual from

1970s suggested that 40 to 45 percent of body heat is lost from the head.

Maybe your parents and teachers told you something similar.

The thing is, it's not accurate.

We only lose about 7% to 10% of our body heat through our heads,

which is roughly the surface area your head takes up.

In short, any exposed part of your body will release heat equally.

The idea that you lose a large portion of your body heat through your head

is one of many supposed facts that we hear over and over again.

How about the idea that bats are blind?

Nope. In fact, their vision may be better than humans vision

during low light conditions at dawn and dusk. Or this one. Eating sugar makes

children hyperactive. It certainly seems that way. Every time I take my son to a

birthday party and let him eat cupcakes, he goes wild.

But several high quality studies have failed to show any reliable changes in children's

behavior following sugar intake.

So if these statements are false or inaccurate,

why are they so pervasive?

And why do they feel so true? In this episode we look at one possible explanation, a

phenomenon that can cause us to believe inaccurate information more than we should.

And it can also lead us to trust reliable information less than we

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