Many Popular Narratives About Humans Are Just Plain Wrong

A look at some of the false stories we keep perpetuating about history, culture, and mating

As someone who often writes about erroneous cultural narratives, it never ceases to amaze me how sticky they can be. Something may have been disproven in the scientific community decades ago and replaced with a widely accepted new theory, and yet, often the old, outdated one is what still remains in the consciousness of the general public.

A good example of this is the narrative that men are just naturally randy and promiscuous and that women are naturally sexually reticent and choosy. It’s a story that has been debunked up one side and down the other for decades by a variety of scientific disciplines, but nonetheless, the narrative is still widely believed and often talked about as fact. (See Story I below for more about that)

Perhaps it’s because school isn’t truly a place for learning. Perhaps it’s because the media pushes its own agenda for its own purposes. Perhaps it’s because people tend to cling to what feels known and therefore most comfortable to them. Whatever the reasons, I’m more interested in getting as close to the truth of things as I can by studying the most current theories about human life and cultures.