Myth 2 - We only use 10% of our Brains
education exchange
In 2025, 3 papers published research from over 4,500 teachers across 12 counties on the most commonly held myths in education. In this series of blogs, we will be looking at the 10 most common myths, how they came about, and the realities surrounding them.
Can you spot a myth? Try this fun quiz based on some of the questions teachers were asked in the research studies
Spot the myth - Try here
Myth 2 - We only use 10% of our Brains
The film Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman grossed almost half a billion dollars with the tagline “The Average Person Uses 10% of their Brain Capacity. Today She Will Hit 100%”. The notion that we use a small proportion of our brains is deeply seductive. It feeds into our belief that we all have this ‘hidden potential’.
The Reality
Our brain is almost always active, in fact no part of our brain is permanently silent. Even during rest our brains are active and we use most of our brains almost all of the time. Our brains have evolved to become highly sophisticated and efficient. There are several animals with larger brains than humans, and while our brains are relatively large for our size, we have evolved to make use of everything we have. Suggesting that our brains are limited to a certain proportion really undermines just how powerful and incredible our brains are.
The follow-up
The most common follow up question then becomes…”so how much of our brain are we using?”….from what I can find out…all of it. Our brains are incredible, each part has a purpose and is in use at various times depending on the task being undertaken by our brain.
Sources
- Fernández-Miras, J.G., Aguilar-Parra, J.M., Trigueros, R. and López-Liria, R. (2023) 'Beyond neuromyths: Examining in-service teachers’ misconceptions about teaching and learning', Frontiers in Psychology, 14, p. 1144002. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1144002.
- Adiguzel, O.C., Potvin, P., Sarrasin, J.B., Vanhoolandt, C., Corfdir, A., Japashov, N., Mansurova, A., Tsai, C.C., Wu, C.L., Elmas, R., Atik-Kara, D., Kucukkayhan, S., Zaid, A.K., Kouchou, I., Voulgari, A., Sy, O., Sakho, I., Ng, S.B., Charland, P. and Létourneau, A. (2025) 'Belief in neuromyths among primary school teachers: a cross-national study of 11 countries', Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 40, p. 100264. doi: 10.1016/j.tine.2025.100264.
- Tunga, Y., Çelik, B. and Cagiltay, K. (2025) 'Educational myths among teachers: prevalence and refutational intervention for belief change', Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12, 1619. doi: 10.1057/s41599-025-05470-y.
- Compton, W.C. (2018) ‘Self-actualization’, in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
- Maslow, A.H. (1943) ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review, 50(4), pp. 370–396.
- Wahba, M.A. and Bridwell, L.G. (1976) ‘Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory’, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 15(2), pp. 212–240.
