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LiveScience
LiveScience
Elana Spivack

Do we really use only 10% of our brains?

A woman looks at a human brain in a human-shaped frame

In 1936, American writer Lowell Thomas wrote in his introduction to Dale Carnegie's book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" what would become an oft-repeated claim: "Professor William James of Harvard used to say that the average man develops only 10% of his latent mental ability."

This idea took on a life of its own, with some people later claiming that humans use only 10% of their brains. But is it true?

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