Pseudoscience Part 2: The Myth of 10%
BY MELODİ BÜYÜKÖZER (PSYC/IV)
buyukozer@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
I bet you all have heard about this in some period of your life: "We use only 10 percent of our brains." What follows is usually the idea that the other 90 percent is a land of miracles, superhuman powers, and incredible abilities. If you could ever enter that 90 percent, you will no longer be an ordinary human being like all the others and in a way you will be very special and exceptional. This 10 percent idea is especially popular in the media and self-help/improvement industry: "If you access this 90 percent you will live a life full of happiness; you will be successful in your job; you might even bend metal tablespoons or start fires only with your brain power. The secret is in our new book." However, is it really true that we only use the 10 percent of our brains and have the remaining 90 percent to discover if we try really hard? Is there a scientific basis for this claim?
The answer is NO. We do not use only 10 percent of our brains. Although we might use the 10 percent of our brains when we are simply resting and thinking, says the neurologist Barry Gordon of John Hopkins School of Medicine, "the 10 percent myth" obviously does not say that: It claims that the maximum use of our brains is 10 percent, which has no scientific basis whatsoever. As a matter of fact we use all of our brain in our daily lives. Barry Beyerstein of the Brain and Behavior Laboratory of Simon Fraser University gives three main reasons why we do not use only 10 percent of our brains: The first one is related to natural selection. As all of our other organs, our brains are shaped by natural selection, and growing/running a 90 percent unused brain tissue would be extremely costly for the metabolism. There is no reason for natural selection to waste resources on a majorly underutilized organ.
The second reason is about the localization of this 90 percent. Let me expand on this: Where this 90 percent is localized? If it is the sum of different areas all over the brain, then the whole brain is in fact pretty necessary to humans to function. Then it should be a separate area, right? If so, it can be assumed that removal of this 90 percent will have no effect on anyone's daily activities since it is not a critical area after all in the life of an ordinary person. However, I am pretty sure that you heard about brain damage and how losing far less than 90 percent of the brain has tragic and even fatal consequences.
The third reason is actually about the scientific advancements. Brain imaging tools such as fMRI, EEG, and PET are commonly-used tools in the field of neuroscience that enable neuroscientists to record changes in brain activity and correlate them with mental and behavioral events. Studies done by using these tools show that there are no areas that are unused in the brain waiting to be entered and lead you to all the secrets of the universe.
Then, how did all this started? Where did this 10 percent myth originate? Well, it is not really clear where it did first start but some attribute the myth to the popular advice articles of William James, the famous American psychologist, when he mentioned that people have undeveloped potentials. Some others attribute it to Albert Einstein or/and Dale Carnegie. It is reasonable to think that its origin is related to the misinterpretation of scientific information and lack of knowledge. How can we identify this kind of information then? Do we actually have that much time to check the accuracy of everything we hear? No. On the other hand, since we are using all of our brains, we can at least start by critically examining everything we hear and think.
Source: Beyerstein, Barry. 1999. "Whence Cometh the Myth that We Only Use Ten Percent of our Brains?" In Mind-myths: Exploring Everyday Mysteries of the Mind and Brain, ed. Sergio Della Sala. New York: John Wiley and Sons.