Myth 50 Misconceptions

Myth 50 focuses on the perceived brutality of Electroconvulsive (Shock) Therapy and the misconceptions associated with it. Studies have found that any Americans both regular and those with medical training have negative beliefs about the effects and uses of ECT. Many believe that is used mainly as a punishment for disgruntled patients in mental institutions and causes nausea and vomiting. ECT is thought to be fatal and potentially fatal with its damages greatly outweighing its benefits (if any at all). These misconceptions are fueled by two things. Firstly, early forms of ECT were potentially deadly. They produce violent convulsions in which the patient could break bones, shatter teeth, and die; this current misconception had

Many parents are under the influence that their child will be better in school and life, increasing their I.Q. scores by listening to Mozart at an early age; any child would want their child to better. This idea first came into light in 1993 with an article describing an improvement in spatial reasoning testing for college students after 10 minutes of listening to Mozart compared to a control group who did not. This study only focuses on one attempt at the test. The study only found that listening to Mozart immediately helped with cognition. However, businesses capitalized on this and began marketing to parents that the “Mozart Effect” can help with mental development in young children, so millions of cassette tapes and CDs were sold to parents under the false pretenses of helping children, when it is a confusion between correlation and causation. Over 70% of Americans including average and psychology students believe that the Mozart effect would increase your intelligence. This belief was so popular that some state governors directed funding to have Mozart played in daycares and other places were infants are heavily