Ten percent myth

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Graphic implementation of the ten percent myth

Similar claims such as “Humans only use about 10 percent of their brain capacity” have been widely circulated for more than 100 years and are incorrectly attributed to famous and intellectually capable people (e.g. Albert Einstein or Margaret Mead ).

The Canadian neuropsychologist Barry Beyerstein researched the origin of this statement in 1998 and coined the term ten percent myth .

According to today's view, this false claim, which is widespread in the para - scientific and self-help literature , arose from misunderstandings or misinterpretations of physiological and neuroscientific investigations and experiments . In this context, authors have repeatedly referred to the psychologist and philosopher William James (1842–1910) who previously worked at Harvard , but he never made a quantitative statement in this regard.

According to surveys, around two thirds of those who are interested in natural science are convinced that the myth is correct, although it can be refuted beyond any doubt with various scientific arguments. Regardless, the ten percent myth continues to be perpetuated by pop culture and occasional use in advertising .

Statement of the ten percent myth

The statement that humans normally only use a small percentage , for example 10 percent, of their brain capacity or brain potential and the remaining 90 percent lie idle is a widespread myth . In addition, it is often and incorrectly attributed to famous and intellectually efficient people like Albert Einstein - this statement cannot be substantiated with regard to Einstein - or Margaret Mead and suggests that these people would have known how their own, unused capacities could have been released and used.

In a further exaggeration of the myth, some representatives of the New Age propagate the belief in it by claiming that the activation of the supposedly unused 90 percent of the brain would enable people to exert special psychological powers and to perform psychokinesis and extrasensory powers through training To gain awareness . There are no scientifically reproducible experiments with verifiable evidence to confirm such activation and the existence of such forces.

"Brain capacity"

The term “brain capacity” ( Latin: capacitas , capacity), which is often used in variants of the formulation of the ten percent myth, is vaguely defined and has different meanings. It occurs mainly in older specialist literature and popular literature. There “brain capacity” stands for different conditions such as brain volume, intelligence , memory performance or in general “ brain capacity ”.

One of the earliest uses of brain capacity is found in a medical journal in 1869 and relates solely to brain volume, which in this case was measured on more than 2,000 skulls. This relation to the brain volume can be found until around the 1960s. Today, depending on the aspect, the precise terms “brain mass” (when given in grams ) or “brain volume” (when given in cubic centimeters ) are preferably used in scientific literature .

From the beginning of the 20th century, additional and often diffuse meanings of memory performance (for example “storage of memory images”) and other mental abilities of the brain were added.

Just as vaguely defined as brain capacity are other terms that appear in variations of the ten percent myth: brain possibilities, brain activity, brain potential, brain energy / brain power , mental abilities / means / forces, as well as analogous formulations with spirit (mind) .

use

The educator Serge Larivée, the physiologist Jean-François Pflieger (both from the Université de Montréal ) and the psychologist Jacinthe Baribeau from the Université Laval have examined le mythe du dix pourcent in a scientific publication . They found that the majority of the quotations on the ten percent myth come from magazines and books on popular psychology and are to be found there especially under the topics of positive thinking (self-help literature) and the pseudoscientific paranormal .

The authors of these works are usually not scientists. They use the myth to promote their ideas and methods of being able to expand the use of the brain beyond the supposed ten percent. This happens "through pedagogical arguments and autosuggestion through irrational means". To achieve this, on the one hand little or undefined terms such as "forces", "capacitance (s)", "resources" and "potential" from the "Power / Energy" are (Engl. Power ), which in addition to concrete Numbers are linked, suggesting that a measurement has preceded it. On the other hand, the existence of the allegedly low use of the brain is supported by unsubstantiated statements from academics (psychologists, neurobiologists, physiologists, etc.) who are often unspecified. In addition, statements of the type “as everyone knows”, “as has been shown several times”, or “the experts agree” help to make these statements into something that is called psycho-fact ( mentefact ): An assertion must only be general and repeated enough times that it is accepted as fact without question.

Examples from 1910

Examples of the ten percent myth have been found in popular psychological literature since the beginning of the 20th century.

  • 1910 - The US American The Dental Register states under symmetry and endurance : “The average man is using only one-fourth of his physical possibilities and one-tenth of his brain possibilities. The average brain shows only one tenth of the cells ever developed at all. "
  • 1915 - The YMCA youth magazine Young Men claims: "The late Professor James said that the average man was using only one-tenth of his brain power."
  • 1922 - The promotion of the book The Secret of Mental Power in Popular Science Monthly quoted Mark Twain and William James, "Mark Twain once said, did the average man did not make much use of his head except for the purpose of keeping his necktie from slipping off. And Professor William James claimed that the average man uses only about a tenth part of his brain. "
  • 1928 - An advertisement for The Pelman Institute in Popular Science magazine advertised a brochure on more efficient self-realization ("Pelmanism") with the following text: "There is no limit to what the human brain can accomplish. Scientists and psychologists tell us we use only about ten per cent of our brain power. The mind is like a muscle. It grows in power through exercise and use. It weakens and deteriorates with idleness. "
  • 1937 - In a foreword to the book How to Win Friends and Influence People ( .. How to Win Friends The Art and Influence People to be ) the communication and motivation coach Dale Carnegie was referring to the American journalist Lowell Thomas to a statement by William James and wrongly stated a very precise percentage: "Professor William James of Harvard used to say that the average man develops only ten percent of his latent mental ability." Carnegie's book has sold more than 15 million copies.
  • 1944 - Carnegie corrects and cites in his book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living ( Don't worry - live!, 1948) William James without giving a percentage: “Compared to what we ought to be we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. "
  • 1950 - L. Ron Hubbard , the later founder of Scientology , wrote in his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (German Dianetics ): "Thought processes are disturbed not only by these engramic commands but also by the fact that the reactive mind reduces, by regenerating unconsciousness, the actual ability to think. Few people possess, because of this, more than 10% of their potential awareness. ”Later, when promoting Dianetics, the unprovable connection with Albert Einstein was used.
  • 1960 - David V. Lewis refers to William James in his book How to Master Your Memory when he writes: “Experts agree that you are using only a fraction of your mental power. No less a pundit than Harvard's great psychologist, William James, claims the average person habitually uses 10 to 15 percent of his brain power. "
  • 1960 - Aldous Huxley , who was experimenting with mind-altering drugs, gave a lecture entitled Human Potentialities at the University of California's San Francisco Medical Center . In it he made the statement: "The neurologists have shown us that no human being has ever made use of as much as ten percent of all the neurons in his brain."
  • 1966 - Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier deal with the real and the paranormal in Le matin des magiciens and refer to a “docteur Warren Penfield” with their statement: “Dans l'état de veille normal de la conscience, il ya un dixième du cerveau en activité. Que se passe-t-il dans les neuf dixièmes silencieux? Et n'existe-t-il pas un état où la totalité du cerveau se trouverait en activité organisée? […] Pourquoi [l'homme] ne posséderait-il pas une sorte de machine électronique analogique dans les profondeurs de son cerveau? Nous savons aujourd'hui que les neuf dixièmes du cerveau humain sont inutilisés dans la vie consciente normal et le docteur Warren Penfield a démontré l'existence, en nous, de ce vaste domaine silencieux. "
  • 1979 - In his book Memory Made Easy Robert Leo Montgomery reduces the statement to the human ability to remember: "Most of us, psychologists say, don't use more than 10 percent of our native ability to remember."
  • 1979 - The writer Sheila Ostrander, who specializes in topics of the paranormal, and co-authors cite other writers in their book Superlearning who in turn quote Soviet physiologists: “In these accounts, writers invariably mentioned a basic contention of Soviet physiologists: We use barely ten percent of our brain capacity, yet we can learn to plug in to the other ninety percent; we can, as they put it, learn to tap the reserves of the mind. "
  • 1979 - Peter Russell claims in his book The Brain Book that even the assumption of ten percent could be far too high: “It is frequently stated that we use only 10% of our full mental potential. This, it now appears, is rather an overestimate. We probably do not use even one percent more likely 0.1% percent or less. "
  • 1983 - In his book How to be twice as smart Scott Witt writes: "Most people use ten percent or less of their brainpower, leaving a vast reserve of mental abilities unused."
  • 1983 - Larry Belliston and Craig K. Mayfield questioningly present “10 or 20 percent” in their book Speed ​​Learning Super Recall : “You've probably heard that we use only 10 or 20 percent of our mental powers. How can that be? Is there some secret to unlocking the other 80 or 90 percent? "
  • 1984 - Tony Buzan formulates it in his book Make the Most of Your Mind similar to Peter Russell five years earlier: “The commonly heard statement that on the average we use only 1 percent of our brain may well be wrong, because it now seems that we use even less than 1 percent. "
  • 1987 - In his book Accelerated Learning, Colin Rose doubts the ten percent and settles on four percent: “It used to be an often quoted statistic that we only use 10% of our potential brain power. The more psychologists have learned in the past 10 years, however, the less likely they are to dare to attempt to quantify our brain potential. The only consistent conclusion is that the proportion of our potential brain power that we use is probably nearer 4% than 10%. "
  • 1990 - Arthur and Ruth Winter set themselves in Augmentez la puissance de votre cerveau to an estimated range below ten percent: “Vous n'utilisez qu'une portion infime des capacités de votre cerveau estimé à un pourcentage qui peut varier entre 0.01 et 10%. "
  • 1992 - Moses Adetumbi, who received his doctorate in religious studies, stipulates “less than 5 percent” in his book You Are a Better Student Than You Think : “It has been estimated that an average person uses only a fraction (less than 5%) of his or her brain potential. Psychologists and neurobiologists alike agree that the human brain has almost unlimited capacity to learn. "
Uri Geller
  • 1996 - The illusionist and, by his own account, Uri Geller , who has been gifted with psychic abilities since childhood, explains in one of his books: “Our minds are capable of remarkable, incredible feats, yet we don't use them to their full capacity. In fact, most of us only use about 10% of our brains, if that. The other 90% is full of untapped potential and an undiscovered ability, which means our minds are only operating in a very limited way instead of at full stretch. I believe that we once had full power over our minds. We had to, in order to survive, but as our world has become more sophisticated and complex we have forgotten many of the abilities we once had. "
  • 1997 - Michael Clark continues in his book Reason to Believe. A Practical Guide to Psychic Phenomena the unused brain percent equal to the subconscious : “We normally use 10% to 20% of our minds. Think how different your life would be if you could utilize that other 80% to 90% known as the subconscious mind. "
  • 2007 - Australian TV scriptwriter and producer Rhonda Byrne writes in her esoteric Spiegel - bestseller The Secret - The Secret : “I see a future of unlimited possibilities, of endless possibilities. Remember that humans use no more than 5 percent of the potential of their mind. All human potential is the product of proper training. So, imagine a world where people use their full cerebral and emotional potential. We could go anywhere. We could do anything. We could achieve anything. "

acceptance

Surveys were conducted to assess the extent to which the ten percent myth was accepted.

distribution

In the three studies listed here, at least 69 percent or more of those surveyed - psychology or biology students as well as departmental visitors interested in psychology - were convinced of the correctness of the myth:

  • In 1998, Higbee and Clay examined the hypothesis that post-undergraduate psychology students had less belief in the ten percent myth than students with no previous psychological training (comparison group). The hypothesis could not be confirmed. The psychology students were more optimistic in the percentage estimate (5 to 90 percent potential brain power ) compared with the control group (5 to 60 percent potential brain power ); "10 percent" was mentioned most frequently by almost a third in both groups, both groups were convinced that this low percentage could be increased, and students in both groups "had read or heard about it", but could not specify the "where" Provide information.
  • Canadian researchers asked 67 biology students (2nd and 3rd year after the start of their studies) to make a yes-no decision to the statement “We only use ten percent of our brain”; 53 of them (79.1 percent) thought this statement was correct.
  • The neuropsychologist Sergio Della Sala put visitors at the open day of the Department of Psychology at the University of Aberdeen 16 yes-no questions before, including "people typically use only 10 percent of their brains." More than two thirds (69 percent) of the visitors agreed with this statement.

Explanation

Neuroscientist Gregory Hickok has explained how such a misconception can come about: “Myths about the brain usually arise in the following way: A fascinating test result generates a plausible but still speculative interpretation (a small part of the lobe of the brain seems to be sufficient ) which is later overinterpreted or distorted (we only use 10 percent of our brain). The resulting caricature ultimately infiltrated popular culture and developed a life of its own, completely independent of the facts that produced them. ”With this, such a claim can explain human weaknesses and serves the hope - positive thinking - that this can be remedied by one activate the remaining 90 percent in various ways and thus achieve an “improvement” for yourself.

Possible origins

The exact origin of the ten percent myth cannot be clearly established. It is also not known whether it was triggered by just one misunderstood or multiple scientific statements, or whether subsequent scientific results were added later as “confirmation”.

It is understandable that over the last two centuries several physiologists and neuroscientists have left behind documented statements from their then mostly very simplified understanding of brain functions, which can be viewed individually or together and without considering the context as possible triggers for the emergence of myths.

Statements Concerning the Brain

Franz Joseph Gall
Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard
William James
William James Sidis
Rudolf Virchow
Wild Penfield
Georgi Losanov
  • Beginning of the 19th century - A possible origin could be found in the phrenology founded by Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) , in which it was assumed that only the cortical neurons in delimited brain areas are responsible for personality and thought processes.
  • Early 19th Century - The physiologist Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens (1794–1867), an opponent of phrenology, carried out experiments with pigeons, chickens and frogs: he removed larger and larger parts of the brain and then observed the behavior of these animals. In 1824 he wrote: "You can remove a certain amount of the cerebral lobes from the anterior, posterior, upper or lateral part without destroying their function."
  • 1876 - The physiologist and neurologist Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (1817-1894) made a statement about the imperfect development of mental faculties when he found that “very few people develop very far and perhaps no one completely” with regard to the capabilities of the brain .
  • 1890s - Harvard psychologists William James and Boris Sidis created the " reserve energy theory" . They examined this theory in the development of Sidis' son, the youthful eccentric William James Sidis (1898–1944), who, according to his sister Helena, “achieved the highest score that has ever been achieved” in an intelligence test. William James, who also had an experimental interest in parapsychological phenomena, claimed in his lectures that people usually only reach a fraction of their full mental potential. An unreferenced statement by William James is most often cited in later mentions of the myth.
  • Late 19th / early 20th centuries - Another explanation for the origin of the ten percent myth is a series of misunderstandings - or misrepresentations - of the results of neurological research. Rudolf Virchow discovered early on that the brain consists mainly of glial cells , which seemed to have only very insignificant functions. It was later found that the functions of many brain regions (especially in the cerebral cortex ) are complex enough that the effects of damage tend to be insidious or even imperceptible, which made the "brain researchers" of the time think about what the real task of these affected regions was. James W. Kalat , author of the textbook Biological Psychology , points out that scientists by the 1930s already knew that the brain contained a large number of switching neurons (local neurons) . The misunderstanding of the function of these switching neurons, which “only” provide the connection between different neurons, could have led to the ten percent myth.
  • 1930s - The origin of this myth is also traced back to US-born Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield , who was the first director of the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University . Penfield and co-workers observed that direct stimulation of approximately ten percent of all areas of the brain in human patients could activate (or interrupt) motor or perceptual events.
  • 1960s - The psychologist and educator Georgi Losanov proposed the teaching method of suggestopedia based on the belief that "... that we might be using only five to ten percent of our mental capacity."

refutation

Named a myth

The first concretization as a myth and explicit use of the term ten percent myth comes from the Canadian neuropsychologist Barry Beyerstein , who wrote this in 1999 in the book chapter Whence Cometh the Myth that We Only Use 10% of our Brains? introduced. In the same year Benjamin Radford commented on the topic in the Skeptical Inquirer . In German, the term “ten percent myth” was adopted a few years later.

Scientific arguments

Neurologist Barry Gordon described the myth as "ridiculously wrong," adding, "... we use practically every part of the brain, and it's active most of the time." Psychologist Donald H. McBurney called the 10 percent myth "one." the toughest weeds in the garden of psychology ”.

Barry Beyerstein lists scientific arguments from various fields that all refute the ten percent myth:

  • Energy needs and evolution: In terms of oxygen and nutrient consumption, the human brain is enormously expensive. It can consume up to 20 percent of the body's total energy expenditure - more than any other organ - although it only makes up about 2 percent of body mass. It is very unlikely that a brain with supposedly 90 percent redundant mass has even developed. Had this been the case anyway and 90 percent of the mass (or function) were unnecessary and lying idle, it would have been a great survival advantage for humans to develop smaller, more efficient brains, and the evolutionary process of natural selection would have eliminated the inefficient brain areas.
  • Brain scans: Technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow the activity of the brain to be determined in vivo . They show that more than 10 percent of all areas of the brain show a determinable level of activity even during sleep . Only in the case of serious damage can "absolutely silent areas" be discovered in the brain.
This was shown in popular science in episode 151 of the documentary series Mythbusters (first broadcast on October 27, 2010). The presenters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage used the magnetoencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging to the brain of Tory Belleci , who was busy with various complicated tasks to investigate. It was measured that around 35 percent of the brain exhibited neural activity.
  • Brain mapping: Instead of always functioning as a unit, the brain has defined and separate areas for the different types of information processing. Decades of research have been devoted to mapping the location of certain functions and no "non-functional" areas have been found.
  • Study of Brain Damage : If 90 percent of the brain were not being used, damage in many areas should not affect the individual's performance. There is almost no area of ​​the brain that does not experience a loss of certain capabilities when damaged. Even slight injuries in small-volume areas of the brain can have profound effects, which can, however, under favorable circumstances be partially compensated for by the cortical plasticity .
  • Cell degeneration: brain cells that do not take part in active processes have a tendency to degenerate. Therefore, if 90 percent of the brain were inactive, autopsies of the adult brain would show large-scale degeneration - which is not the case. Such areas can only be found in the autopsy of deceased patients with neurodegenerative diseases .

Persistence in pop culture and advertising

Short story , book, and movie writers in popular culture use multiples of the brain as a dramatic element of their fantastic narratives , thereby keeping the ten percent myth alive. The works cited are well-known examples.

literature

  • The short story Lest We Remember ( Isaak Asimov , 1982; Eng. Let us remember , 2007) tells the story of the average John Heath, who receives a newly developed substance as a test person, which activates his unused photographic memory and allows him to recall completely : He can remember exactly everything he has ever seen or read.
  • Understand (1991; German Understanding , 2014) is a short story by Ted Chiang in which a man suffers brain damage after anoxia and, after treatment with an experimental drug, intellectually grows beyond his former self.
  • The Zombie Survival Guide ( Max Brooks , 2010) claims that humans use only 5 percent of their brains, which leaves enough room and capacity to explain a potential virus- activated zombie sixth sense.

Movie

  • In the movie Der Flug des Navigator (1986), scientists from the planet Phaelon discover that humans only use 10 percent of their brain's capacity. Therefore, they experimentally fill the remaining 90 percent of a teenager named David with various information (for example star maps ).
  • The premise of the romantic comedy Rendezvous in the Hereafter (1991) is that people use only 3 to 5 percent of their brains (they are therefore referred to as "little brains") and use it to only try to conquer their fear during their time on earth . If an Earthling succeeds and learns to achieve more cognitive performance, he will reach a higher level. If he does not succeed, his soul will be reborn and he will have another try on earth.
  • The Lawnmower Man (1992) deals with experiments with the mental capacity of a gardener's assistant. It has nothing in common with the short story of the same name by Stephen King.
  • In the techno thriller The Dark Fields ( Alan Glynn , 2001), the protagonist Eddie Spinola experiments with the drug MDT-48 and increases his mental abilities far beyond his 20 percent - instead of the usual 10 percent mentioned. In 2011 the book was filmed under the title Limitless . The unsuccessful writer Eddie Morra is experimenting with a synthetic drug called NZT-48 , which the drug dealer Vernon Gant leaves to him with the claim that it activates the brain's capacity beyond the usual 10 to 20 percent. In 2015, a television series based on this thriller was produced.
  • In the pilot episode for the television series Heroes (2006), the genetics professor Mohinder Suresh confirms the ten percent myth and thus explains the human potential for superpowers.
  • The film Lucy (2014) “perpetuates [this] brain myth”.
  • The myth is also mentioned in The Lazarus Effect , a horror thriller released in 2015.

advertising

The ten percent myth is used in various ways in advertising to convey to the reader - and potential customers - that they are showing (or receiving) higher intellectual potential when using the advertised services and goods. For example, Northwest Airlines advertised with the slogan: “It's been said that we use a mere 10% of our brain capacity. If, however, you're flying ConnectFirst SM from Northwest Airline, you're using considerably more. ”There are other examples of this kind - from deliberately humorous allusions to suggestion - of being able to increase one's intellectual performance through the advertised product.

Further use unrelated to the brain

There are two other topics in which similar terms such as “ten percent myth” have been used to denote an often repeated percentage as incorrect. In both cases, however, the myth lies in the fact that ten percent is far too high, and in both cases it is used considerably less than when referring to the human brain.

  • In the English-language literature that deals with the results of sex research, the term ten percent myth , the myth of ten percent , ten percent homosexuality myth or "ten percent myth" is found in connection with the percentage of homosexuals in the total population, which Alfred Charles Kinsey and coworkers had stated in 1948 as "Ten percent of the males are more or less exclusively homosexual ...".
  • Another, one-time mention, mythical ten percent , is in connection with deaf research in the USA, where allegedly in ten percent of the births deaf in the USA either one or both parents are said to be deaf.

Web links

literature

  • Christopher Wanjek: Bad Medicine: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Distance Healing to Vitamin O. John Wiley & Sons 2003, ISBN 978-0-471-46315-3 .
  • Christian Jarrett: Great Myths of the Brain (Great Myths of Psychology). John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2014 ISBN 978-1-118-62450-0 .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Christoph Drösser: ZEIT series “It's true”: Humans only use ten percent of their brain capacity , Die Zeit, No. 40, September 26, 1997.
  2. ↑ Mario Lips: Unused reserves in the brain? Put an end to the 10 percent myth! , N24, July 21, 2014.
  3. ^ A b Do People Only Use 10 Percent Of Their Brains . Scientific American . February 7, 2008. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  4. ↑ Shanna Freeman: Top 10 Myths About the Brain , HowStuffWorks; accessed on August 7, 2014.
  5. ^ Sergio Della Sala: Tall Tales about the Mind and Brain: Separating Fact from Fiction . Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-856877-3 , p. 20.
  6. ^ A b Sandra Aamodt, Samuel Wang: Welcome to Your Brain . CH Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57140-4 , p. 25.
  7. ^ Benjamin Radford: The Ten-Percent Myth . snopes.com. February 8, 2000. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Barry L. Beyerstein : Whence Cometh the Myth that We Only Use 10% of our Brains? . In: Sergio Della Sala (Ed.): Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain . Wiley, 1999, ISBN 0-471-98303-9 , pp. 3-24.
  9. ^ Medical and surgical review . Engle, Urban & Schwarzenberg., 1869, p. 3.
  10. ^ Gerhard Heberer and Franz Schwanitz: Hundred Years of Evolutionary Research . Fischer, 1960.
  11. ↑ Oliver Peschel : The child in forensic medicine: Festschrift for Wolfgang Eisenmenger . Hüthig Jehle Rehm, 2009, ISBN 978-3-609-16409-0 , p. 62.
  12. ↑ Wolfgang Tzschoppe: Structure of Mathematics - Mathematics of Structures . BoD - Books on Demand, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8448-2255-7 , p. 14.
  13. ↑ Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Stanton A. Friedberg: Studies on the human cortex . Published by Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1906.
  14. ↑ Université de Montréal, Ecole de psychoéducation: Serge Larivée ; Editions Eres: Serge Larivée .
  15. ↑ Université de Montréal, Département de sciences biologiques: Jean-François Pflieger.
  16. ↑ Université Laval, École de psychologie: Jacinthe Baribeau ; manuscrit.com: Jacinthe Baribeau.
  17. ↑ a b c d e f g h i S. Larivée, J. Baribeau, J.-F. Pflieger: Qui utilize 10% de son cerveau? (Who uses 10% of his brain?) , Revue de psychoéducation, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 117-142 (2008).
  18. ^ Robert J. Samuelson: The triumph of the psycho-fact , Newsweek , May 9, 1994, p. 75.
  19. ^ Jonathon Taft, George Watt, Nelville Soulé Hoff: The Dental Register , Volume 64. Wrightson, 1910, p. 26.
  20. ↑ Loosely translated: “The average person uses only a quarter of his physical capabilities and a tenth of his brain capabilities. The average brain shows only a tenth of the cells ever developed. "
  21. ↑ Young Men 1915 (Vol. 41), p. 129.
  22. ↑ Loosely translated: "The late Professor James said that the average man only used a tenth of his brain power."
  23. ↑ Popular Science Monthly . McClure, Phillips and Company, 1922 (Vol. 101), p. 21.
  24. ↑ Reprint: Hearst Magazines: Popular Mechanics . Hearst Magazines, September 1922, p. 63, ISSN  0032-4558 .
  25. ↑ Loosely translated: “Mark Twain once said that the average man doesn't make much use of his head, except to keep his tie from slipping off. And Professor William James claimed that the average person only uses about a tenth of their brains. "
  26. ^ Bonnier Corporation: Popular Science . Bonnier Corporation, November 1928, p. 173, ISSN  0161-7370 .
  27. ↑ Loosely translated: “There is no limit to what the human brain can achieve. Scientists and psychologists tell us that we only use about ten percent of our brain power. The mind is like a muscle. It becomes stronger through practice and use. It becomes weaker and diminishes through inaction. "
  28. ^ Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People (sample text) . Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  29. ^ L. Thomas: A short-cut to distinction , in How to Win Friends and Influence People (1937, pp. 1-13), Dale Carnegie (editor), Toronto: Musson Book.
  30. ↑ Loosely translated: "Professor William James at Harvard used to say that the average person only develops ten percent of his latent mental faculties."
  31. ↑ Commentary on the 2010 edition; Dale Carnegie: How To Win Friends and Influence People . Simon and Schuster, August 24, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4516-2171-6 .
  32. ^ Dale Carnegie: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living , New York (1944), Simon é Schuster.
  33. ↑ Loosely translated: “Compared to what we should be, we are only half awake. We only use a small part of our physical and mental resources. Generally speaking, the human individual lives in this way well within his limits. It has abilities of various kinds that it usually does not use. "
  34. ↑ Freely translated: “Thought processes are not only disturbed by these engramical commands, but also by the fact that the reactive mind reduces the actual ability to think through the regeneration of unconsciousness. Few people have more than 10% of their potential consciousness as a result. "
  35. ↑ Quoted in the systematic listing in the review article by S. Larivée, J. Baribeau, J.-F. Pflieger: Qui utilize 10% de son cerveau? (Who uses 10% of his brain?) , Revue de psychoéducation, Vol. 37, No. 1, 117-142 (2008).
  36. ^ Dianetics, Albert Einstein and the statement of the ten percent myth.
  37. ^ David V. Lewis: How to Master Your Memory , Gulf Publishing, Houston, Texas (1962).
  38. ↑ Freely translated: “The experts agree that you only use a fraction of your intellectual power. No less a scholar than the great Harvard psychologist William James claims that the average person uses 10 to 15 percent of their brain power. "
  39. ↑ Jeffrey J. Kripal: Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion . University of Chicago Press, April 15, 2007, ISBN 978-0-226-45369-9 , p. 85; Loosely translated: "The neurologists have shown us that no human being has ever used more than ten percent of all neurons in his brain."
  40. ↑ James R. Lewis, J. Gordon Melton: Perspectives on the New Age . SUNY Press, 1992, ISBN 978-0-7914-1213-8 , p. 37.
  41. ^ From the results of a study published by Larivée et al. After a PubMed search for "Warren Penfield" was carried out , the authors conclude that either (a) "Warren Penfield" was an invention of Pauwels and Bergier, or that (b) was confused here with "Wilder Penfield", who made no such statements .
  42. ^ Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier: Le matin des magiciens , Gallimard (1966), Paris.
  43. ↑ Loosely translated: “In the state of normal waking consciousness, one tenth of the brain is active. What happens in the silent nine tenths? And isn't there a state in which the entire brain is doing an organized activity? [...] Why doesn't [man] have some kind of analog, electronic machine in the depths of his brain? We now know that nine tenths of the human brain is idle in normal conscious life and Dr. Warren Penfield has proven the existence of this huge, silent area in us. "
  44. ^ Robert Leo Montgomery: Memory Made Easy. The Complete Book of Memory Training , Amacom Books (1979), New York, ISBN 978-0-8144-5523-4 .
  45. ↑ Loosely translated: "Psychologists say that most of us do not use more than ten percent of our innate ability to remember."
  46. ^ Sheila Ostrander, Lynn Schroeder and Nancy Ostrander: Superlearning , New York: Delacorte Press / The Confucian Press (1979).
  47. ↑ Free translation: “In these reports, writers inevitably mentioned a fundamental assertion by Soviet physiologists: We use just under ten percent of our brain capacity, but we can learn to tap into the other ninety percent; we can, as they say, learn to tap into the reserves of the spirit. "
  48. ^ Peter Russell: The Brain Book , New York (1979), Hawthorn Books ( The Brain Book: Know Your Own Mind and How to Use it , Routledge (2010), ISBN 978-0-415-03455-5 ).
  49. ↑ Loosely translated: “It is often stated that we only use 10 percent of our full spiritual potential. This, it now seems, is more of an overestimation. We're probably not even using 1 percent, more likely 0.1 percent or less. "
  50. ^ Scott Witt: (1983). How to be twice as smart. Boosting your brainpower and unleashing the miracles of your mind, Reward Books (1983), New York (Prentice Hall Press (2002), ISBN 978-0-7352-0282-5 ).
  51. ↑ Freely translated: "Most people use ten percent or less of their brain power and leave a huge reserve of mental abilities unused."
  52. ↑ Larry Belliston and Craig K. Mayfield: Speed ​​Learning Super Recall , Utah, Woodland Hills (1983), SB Publishers, ISBN 978-0-911641-02-8 .
  53. ↑ Loosely translated: “You have probably heard that we only use 10 or 20 percent of our mental powers. How can that be? Is there a secret to unlocking the other 80 or 90 percent? "
  54. ^ Tony Buzan: Make the Most of Your Mind , Simon & Schuster (1984), New York (Touchstone, ISBN 978-0-671-49519-0 ).
  55. ↑ Loosely translated: "The commonly heard statement that on average we only use 1 percent of our brains could probably be wrong, since it now appears that we use even less than 1 percent."
  56. ^ Colin Rose: Accelerated Learning , Dell Publishing Company (1987), New York, ISBN 978-0-440-50044-5 .
  57. ↑ Loosely translated: “It was an often quoted statistic that we only use 10% of our potential brain power. The more psychologists have learned over the past decade, the less likely it is that they can dare to quantify our brain potential. The only consistent conclusion is that the proportion of our potential brain power that we use is probably closer to 4 percent than 10 percent. "
  58. ↑ Arthur Winter and Ruth Winter: Augmentez la puissance de votre cerveau , Le Jour Eds (1990), Montréal, ISBN 978-2-89044-395-2 .
  59. ↑ Loosely translated: "You only use a fraction of your brain capacity, an estimated 0.01 to 10 percent."
  60. ^ Moses Adetumbi: You Are a Better Student Than You Think , Adex Book Co. (1992), Huntsville (AL), ISBN 978-0-9632502-2-3 .
  61. ↑ Loosely translated: “It has been estimated that an average person uses only a fraction (less than 5%) of their brain potential. Both psychologists and neurobiologists agree that the human brain has an almost unlimited ability to learn. "
  62. ↑ Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn and John Ruscio (Coauthor: Barry L. Beyerstein): 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior . John Wiley & Sons, September 15, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4443-6074-5 , p. 36.
  63. ↑ Loosely translated: “Our minds are capable of remarkable, incredible abilities, but we do not use them to their full capacity. In fact, most of us only use around 10% of our brains, if at all. The other 90% are full of untapped potential and an undiscovered ability, which means that our minds are only working in very limited ways rather than at full capacity. I believe that we once had full power over our minds. We had to survive, but as our world has become more demanding and complex, we have forgotten many of the skills we once had. ”Originally in Uri Geller's Mindpower Kit , New York: Penguin Books, 1996.
  64. ↑ Michael Clark: Reason to Believe. A Practical Guide to Psychic Phenomena , Avon Books (1997), New York, ISBN 978-0-380-78474-5 .
  65. ↑ Loosely translated: “We normally use 10 to 20% of our mind. Think how different your life would be if you could use that other 80 to 90% that is known as the subconscious. "
  66. ^ Rhonda Byrne, The Secret , > Goldmann Arkana (2007), ISBN 978-3-442-33790-3 .
  67. ↑ Kenneth L. Higbee and Samuel L. Clay: College Students' Beliefs in the Ten-Percent Myth , The Journal of Psychology , 132 (5), 469-476 (Sep. 1998); doi : 10.1080 / 00223989809599280 .
  68. ↑ Sergio Della Sala: Mind Myth. Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain , John Wiley (1999), New York, ISBN 978-0-471-98303-3 .
  69. ↑ Free German translation of the original: "Myths about the brain typically arise in this fashion: An intriguing experimental result generates a plausible if speculative interpretation (a small part of the lobe seems sufficient) that is later overextended or distorted (we use only 10 percent of our brain). The caricature ultimately infiltrates pop culture and takes on a life of its own, quite independent from the facts that spawned it. "
  70. ^ A b c Gregory Hickok: Three Myths about the Brain , New York Times, August 1, 2014.
  71. ^ A b Benjamin Radford: The Ten-Percent Myth , The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 23.2, March / April 1999, p. 52 ff .; Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  72. ↑ Abraham Sperling: A Story of a Genius , in Psychology for the Millions , 1946, pp. 332–339.
  73. ↑ Harvey J. Irwin, Caroline A. Watt: An Introduction to Parapsychology, 5th ed . McFarland, February 21, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-5138-8 , p. 19.
  74. ↑ Sam Wang: Debunking Common Brain Myths . April 24, 2009. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  75. ↑ Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt: Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life February 2, 2008, ISBN 978-1-59691-283-0 .
  76. ^ LibraryThing: James W. Kalat .
  77. ^ JW Kalat: Biological Psychology , 6th edition, Pacific Grove: Brooks / Cole Publishing Co., 1998, p. 43.
  78. ↑ Christian Jarrett: All You Need To Know About the 10 Percent Brain Myth, in 60 Seconds , Wired, July 24, 2014.
  79. ↑ Ezequiel Morsella: Do we use only 10 percent of our brain? , Psychology Today , June 21, 2011.
  80. ^ Diane Larsen-Freeman (2000): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Teaching Techniques in English as a Second Language (2nd edition), Oxford, Oxford University Press. p. 73, ISBN 978-0-19-435574-2 .
  81. ↑ Freely translated: "... that we may only use five to ten percent of our intellectual capacity".
  82. ↑ Loosely translated: Where does the myth that we only use 10% of our brain come from?
  83. ↑ Stephen F. Davis and Joe Palladino: Psychology: Media and Research . Pearson / Prentice Hall, June 2004, ISBN 978-0-13-191759-0 . In the original: "one of the hardest weeds in the garden of psychology".
  84. ^ Pedro De Bruyckere, Paul A. Kirschner, Casper D. Hulshof: Urban Myths about Learning and Education . Elsevier Science, March 6, 2015, ISBN 978-0-12-801731-9 , p. 100.
  85. ↑ Nikhil Swaminathan: Why Does the Brain Need So Much Power? . In: Scientific American . April 29, 2008. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  86. ^ André Parent: Carpenter's Human Neuroanatomy (Chapter 1) . Williams & Wilkins, 1996, ISBN 978-0-683-06752-1 .
  87. ↑ Given the risk of infant death from complications of skull size, there is strong selective pressures against large skulls with large brains.
  88. ↑ MythBusters Database: 10 Percent of Brain ; finding: busted.
  89. ↑ This exemplary list does not claim to be complete.
  90. ↑ Max Brocks: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead , Broadway Books (2003), ISBN 978-1-4000-4962-2 , Chapter 1, Zombie Attributes: Read an excerpt : F. Sixth Sense.
  91. ↑ Nick Ng: 'Lucy' Movie Perpetuates Brain Myth , Guardian Liberty Voice, August 3, 2014.
  92. ↑ Christopher Bahn: 'Limitless' brainpower plot isn't all that crazy . March 7, 2011. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  93. ↑ The French neurologist Yves Agid, who advised the director Luc Besson on the shooting of Lucy , said in an interview (Michael Simm: A bit of brain doping is possible , Focus, No. 34, August 18, 2014, p. 85) that he had pointed out to Besson that the "10 percent idea" was incorrect. But Besson stuck to it. In Agid's opinion, this is okay because Lucy is a science fiction thriller, not a science documentary.
  94. ^ Earl G. Graves: Black Enterprise . Earl G. Graves, Ltd., June 1998, p. 23, ISSN  0006-4165 . ; Loosely translated: “It was said that we only use 10% of our brain capacity. But if you fly Northwest Airline's ConnectFirst SM, you're using a lot more. "
  95. ↑ Eric Chudler: Myths About the Brain: 10 percent and Counting , April 17, 2013.
  96. ↑ Peter Sprigg: Outrage: How Gay Activists and Liberal Judges are Trashing Democracy to Redefine Marriage . Regnery, 2004, ISBN 978-0-89526-021-5 , p. 76.
  97. ^ Edward O. Laumann: The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States . University of Chicago Press, December 15, 2000, ISBN 978-0-226-47020-7 , p. 287.
  98. ↑ Jennifer Bass: Kinsey And The 10 Percent Homosexuality Myth , April 23, 2011; Retrieved November 25, 2016.
  99. ↑ Gunter Schmidt, Arne Dekker: Children of the sexual revolution . Psychosozial-Verlag, 2000, ISBN 978-3-89806-027-1 , p. 56.
  100. ^ AC Kinsey, WB Pomeroy and CE Martin: Sexual behavior in the human male , Saunders, Philadelphia (1953), ISBN 978-0-253-33411-4 .
  101. ↑ Loosely translated: "Ten percent of all men are more or less exclusively homosexual ..."
  102. ↑ Loosely translated as 'mythical ten percent'.
  103. ↑ RE Mitchel and M. Karchmer: Chasing the mythical ten percent: Parental status hearing of deaf and hard of hearing students in the United States , Sign Language Studies 4 (2), pp 138-163.