10 % Myth Research Paper

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Shanice Addison General Psychology 1101 Deeper Exploration #4 April 1, 2013 The Truth behind the 10% Myth Over the years many people have developed theories on how they think the brain works, and the most popular one of them all is the idea that people only use ten percent of their brain. Yes, our brain is a complex and mysterious structure that process conscious and unconscious thoughts, but that doesn’t mean that we only use ten percent of our brain. The idea that we use ten percent of our brain is widespread between psychology students, well-educated people, and even some neuroscientist (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein, 2010, p. 21). Psychologists and neuroscientists have spent time and effort showing that this myth cannot be possible. The sources of this myth are word of mouth, desire for easy answers and quick fix, but most of all it was spread through misleading films and media portrayals (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein, 2010, p. 9). “Surveys show the 6% of neuroscientist, a third of psychology students, and 59% of college educated people answered 10% when ask the question: “about what percentage of their potential brain power do you think most people use?” (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein, 2010, p. 21).…show more content…
They believe that the origin of the myth goes back to psychologist William James, who argued in The Energies of Men that "We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein, 2010, p. 23)." They also associate the myth with Albert Einstein, who supposedly used it to explain his cosmic towering intellect (Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio, & Beyerstein, 2010, p. 23). This is mainly spread throughout the media, because they use it as a way to draw people in so that they can make
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