Popular ideas in culture, potentially refuted

(Last updated: October 2022)

Below is a list of popular ‘turns out’ style content that it (drumroll…) turns out, may not be correct after all. At least, if you are willing to accept the counter arguments.

Books

• Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams (Matthew Walker)
  • vs “Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep” Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors” (Alexy Guzey)
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval Noah Harari)
  • vs A Response to Yuval Harari’s ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’ (C.R. Hallpike)
• The “Ten thousand hours rule” from Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)
  • vs The Sports Gene (David Epstein)
• The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)
  • vs Is the Tipping Point Toast? (Clive Thompson)
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Angela Duckworth)
  • vs Much Ado about Grit: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis of the Grit Literature (Marcus Crede)

Documentaries

• What the Health (Netflix)
  • vs What the Health: A Movie with an Agenda (Science-Based Medicine)
• The Game Changers
  • vs The Game Changers Review – A Scientific Analysis (Layne Norton)

Other

• Oatly Oat Drink as a healthy alternative to milk
  • vs Is Oatly Oat Milk Healthy?, plus Oatley Responds