Truth serums aren't genuine, nearly nothing is hard-wired, and you're misinterpreting oxytocin
Psychology-related terms and phrases find their way into our everyday lexicon. Unfortunately, many of them have become warped in our thoughts, and we now use them to refer to the wrong thing—or, in some cases, science has advanced, and we're discussing something hopelessly out of date. Some of the worst offenders were identified in an assessment of 50 "psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid" by writers who study psychology.
There is no Brainwashing
I'm sorry (or perhaps pleased?) to inform you that brainwashing does not exist. The phrase was used to characterize American troops in the Korean War who looked to be politically aligned with their captors or who confessed to acts they did not commit. It seems like the Koreans had done something to their thoughts.
However, this does not imply that their minds were transformed. When they returned home, virtually all of them repudiated the views they had allegedly been indoctrinated into thinking. Moreover, despite the fact that the term "brainwashing" has subsequently been used to characterize cult members and others, there is no proof that such a process occurs. (After the Korean War, the US government worked hard to develop techniques to brainwash individuals but eventually failed.)
People can be convinced, and they can be coerced or tortured into saying things they don't believe. That doesn't require a horrible psychological phenomena to explain.
Antidepressants are used for more than simply depression
Antidepressants exist and are frequently effective in the treatment of depression. However, as the authors of the psychological terminology review point out, the pharmaceuticals we name "antidepressants" are equally effective in treating conditions other than depression.
Tricyclics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, for example, are also used to treat panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and bulimia nervosa. They are also not uniformly efficient against depression; their effectiveness is dependent on the individual and the degree of the depression.
Brain regions do not "light up"
When doing a task or experiencing a specific environment, one section of the brain "lights up" according to studies on brain function. However, that is a description based on how brain scans seem when they are published, not on what actually occurs in the brain.
The vivid colors we see on fMRI scans are added afterwards to color-code what's going on in different parts of the brain. And they are referring to the volume of blood flowing through the allegedly "lit up" portions of the brain, not whether neurons in those areas are firing or what is happening as a result of that firing. They may even signal that something in the brain is inhibiting rather than activating.
Your personality characteristics are hardwired
The phrase "hard-wired" refers to specific talents or personality traits that are inherited from one's parents. Hardware refers to circuit boards and the like, and the way they were made is how they will remain; software refers to programs that operate on that hardware, and software may be updated at any moment.
Certain brain activities have been defined as hard-wired, which means they are permanent elements of how our brains work. But this isn't true unless you're talking about really fundamental processes, such as the circuits that allow us to breathe. Almost everything our brains are capable of changing over time as we learn and gain new experiences.
Hypnotic Trances do not exist
Hypnosis is genuine in the sense that one person may influence another (or themselves) to be more receptive to suggestion. However, this does not imply that the individual being hypnotized is in a "trance state" distinct from regular awareness. Being hypnotized simply implies that you are hyper-focused yet simultaneously relaxed and more suggestible than normal.
There is no set of physical or behavioral features that can distinguish between someone being in a "hypnotic trance" and someone who is simply interested in playing along with the person they're talking to.
Lie detectors don’t work
"Lie detectors" do not exist. They cannot tell you if someone is lying or not, simply whether they are scared. And if you believe anyone may be uneasy while being linked up to a machine and asked intimate questions, you can see why so-called lie detectors are ineffective.
Lie detectors have a high percentage of false positives (when you're scared but not lying), but they also have a high rate of false negatives. You may easily rig the system by, for example, biting your tongue while answering specific questions or thinking about thrilling or soothing things when you want to change your response.
The hormone oxytocin is not a "love molecule"
Because of its association with social bonding, oxytocin has been dubbed a "love molecule." When you stare at your cute child or pet, oxytocin is most likely sending messages throughout your brain and body to coordinate that "awwww" reaction.
But it also does a lot of other things. Oxytocin coordinates the uterine contractions involved in childbirth so well that when obstetricians wish to start or speed up labor, they connect you up to an IV bag of it. It also interacts with other organs such as the kidneys, heart, and testes.
Even when we examine how the hormone affects us socially, it isn't all love and cuddling. In some studies, it causes people to be more skeptical of others who are seen to be different from ourselves. It may also cause us to pay greater attention to both good and negative social cues, perhaps raising emotions of anxiety. It's not exactly what you'd anticipate from a "love hormone."
"Multiple personalities" is only used in movies these days
Multiple personality disorder has not been recognized as a valid psychiatric diagnosis since 1994, although the concept survives in popular culture. The closest thing is dissociative identity disorder, which is characterized by a sense of separation from one's own emotions.
The concept that a person's identities might "split," with one oblivious of the others, was popularized by the 1973 novel (and subsequently film) Sybil. The novel was allegedly based on a factual incident, although the woman who inspired it has stated that the numerous personalities were fabricated.
We're all misusing the phrase "steep learning curve"
Skills are frequently referred to as having a learning curve. The notion is that when you spend more time working on a subject, you learn more about it, and that the experience may be represented by a graph with time along the bottom and your skill on the y-axis.
However, when we describe a tough topic as having a "steep learning curve," we may visualize oneself ascending a mountain to achieve competency. However, a sharp upslope indicates that we are developing a lot of expertise in a short period of time. This might be used to describe a subject that is simple to understand.
"Personality types" aren't based on science
Personality tests, such as the Myers-Briggs inventory, have been dubbed "astrology for people who think they're too smart for astrology," and the description is accurate. Introversion and extraversion do not exist in various "types" in the population; they exist on a continuum, and it makes no sense to split people into groups when a dividing line does not exist.
There is no Truth Serum
Now that you've learned that brainwashing isn't genuine, here's another surprise: truth serums aren't either. Drugs such as sodium pentothal have been used to force people to confess the truth under interrogation or in other situations. ("Sybil" of multiple personality renown used it during her treatment sessions.) However, it turns out that so-called truth serum medications do not help individuals reveal the truth; they only make them more willing to talk. What they say might be real or a falsehood. Indeed, studies have found that these medicines enhance the likelihood of a person expressing false memories and admissions.
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