My daughter Petra prefers to wash her hands with cold water. I encouraged her to use warmer water, telling her it gets her hands cleaner. Kim overheard me and asked, “Is that actually true?” It’s something we had learned as conventional wisdom, but she wondered if either of us had ever looked into it. Lo and behold, when I did check I found that cool water is as effective as hot water for removing germs The same study found that neither extra soap nor hand washing times beyond 30 seconds removed additional germs from hands.
There’s a bigger picture to consider here. I was wrong about my belief, and moreover I was actively trying to pass that wrong belief on to the next generation. Thankfully, Kim’s timely question combined with the internet and publicly available science managed to stop me. This time. I wonder, though, what other commonplace beliefs I hold that are simply untrue. When the easiest person to deceive is yourself, there’s nothing quite like asking “is that actually true?”
A challenge: ask yourself “is that actually true” once today and see if you learn anything surprising.