factoid

A factoid is a scrap of information that looks and sounds like a fact but isn't really true. The writer Norman Mailer made up the word in 1973, adding -oid, resembling, as in humanoid: something repeated until people accept it as real. Carrots give you night vision; swallowed gum stays seven years. People often use it for fun trivia, but its real bite is false belief. In the animation, a red-faced man shrugs, caught spreading a story he can't prove.