A: In 1997, 14 year old Nathan Zohner presented his science fair project to his classmates, seeking to ban a highly dangerous chemical from its everyday use. The chemical in question? Dihydrogen monoxide.
Throughout his presentation, Zohner provided his audience scientifically correct evidence as to why this chemical should be banned.
He explained that dihydrogen monoxide:
- Can cause severe burns while it’s in gas form
- Corrodes and rusts metal
- Kills countless people annually
- Is commonly found in tumors, acid rain, etc.
- Causes excessive urination and bloating if consumed
Zohner also noted that the chemical is able to kill you if you depend on it and then experience an extended withdrawal. He then asked his classmates if they actually wanted to ban dihydrogen monoxide. And so 43 out of the 50 children present voted to ban this obviously unsafe chemical.
However…this chemical isn’t typically considered toxic at all. In fact, dihydrogen monoxide is simply an unconventional name for water.
Nathan Zohner’s experiment wasn’t a legitimate attempt to ban water, but instead an experiment to get a representation of how gullible people can really be. Also, all of the points that Zohner used to convey his point were 100% factually correct; he just skewed all of the information in his favor by omitting certain facts.
One journalist eventually dubbed this event as ‘Zohnerism’, where true facts are used to mislead people towards false conclusions. And this occurs a lot more often than you think, especially when politicians, journalists, etc., use proven facts to persuade people into believing false claims. The fact that people can mislead, and be misled so easily, is highly unsettling.
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