Mandela effect

Mandela effect, popularized phenomenon in which a group of people collectively misremember facts, events, or other details in a consistent manner. Paranormal researcher and author Fiona Broome conceptualized the effect after discovering that she and others possessed strong, yet false, memories about the death of South African anti-apartheid activist (and later president) Nelson Mandela while in prison during the 1980s. Research has found evidence for a specific Mandela effect concerning the misidentification of certain pop culture images; however, intense debate has occurred over potential causal mechanisms, many of which include pseudoscientific explanations.

Origins

The Mandela effect originated in 2009 with Broome, a self-described paranormal researcher and author. By her account, Broome had vividly, yet falsely, recalled Mandela dying while he was imprisoned during the 1980s. She even recollected his widow’s speech and riots in some cities. Upon learning that Mandela was still alive, she initially dismissed her memories as a result of misunderstanding; however, during a conversation with a security staff member at a science fiction and fantasy convention in 2009, Broome reportedly learned that others possessed the same false memory about Mandela’s death in prison, with similar details about the aftermath.

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Broome was struck by the similarities and created a website for people to share and discuss their memories that did not align with recorded history, a phenomenon she called the Mandela effect. Through thousands of comments, people began to uncover shared memories that differed from reality, and the Mandela effect went viral. It became an Internet phenomenon, going as far as to inspire a film titled The Mandela Effect (2019).

Examples

The Mandela effect can occur within a variety of memory types, and many examples are rooted in pop culture. Images are commonly cited as examples of the phenomenon: while many people recall the man from the Monopoly board game wearing a monocle and the Fruit of the Loom logo containing a cornucopia, neither of those elements actually exist. Verbal cues also make up common false memories, including those regarding famous movie lines. Dialogue such as “Magic mirror, on the wall” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is often mistakenly recalled as “Mirror, mirror, on the wall,” while “No, I am your father” from Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is commonly misremembered as “Luke, I am your father.” Sometimes, shared memories arise about entire works of media that never existed. People have reported having shared false memories of a movie called Shazaam from the 1990s with the actor Sinbad portraying a genie as well as an episode of Star Trek: Voyager that never existed.

Potential causes

In 2022 a study conducted by psychology researchers from the University of Chicago examined and found evidence for the visual Mandela effect, a subtype of Mandela effect specifically for visual icons. The researchers posited that for certain images the effect could be explained by the schema theory of memory, the idea that people tend to misremember details when the details coincide with their expectations of the image. For example, the false belief that the Monopoly Man wears a monocle may draw from the fact that the eyepiece seems like an appropriate accessory for the character. For other icons, potential explanations focused on the intrinsic memorability of each icon, wherein properties of incorrect versions of an icon may be more memorable than those of the correct version. However, the researchers concluded that the visual Mandela effect could not be universally explained by a single explanation and that images may be subject to the phenomenon for different reasons.

Other psychologists have pointed to false memories and other cognitive errors as potential explanations. Confabulation, the tendency for the brain to fill in gaps in memory by unconsciously adding incorrect information, can lead to groups unintentionally recalling details which, although they may seem to fit with the situation in question, are actually false. Suggestibility, the tendency to incorporate false information from other sources into our memories, may also play a causal role in the Mandela effect when combined with social media and how information is shared on the Internet. The misquotation “Luke, I am your father” is commonly circulated on the Internet, and exposure to the line may result in the false belief in its truth. In a similar fashion, source confusion may result in the creation of false memories because of misplacement of where a memory came from. For example, belief in the hypothetical movie Shazaam may have resulted from confusion with the film Kazaam (1996), which starred basketball player Shaquille O’Neal as a genie.

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Other theories are not grounded in mainstream science. Although Broome made no causal claims in her initial post, she firmly rejected the notion that the Mandela effect resulted from false memories and instead cited parallel realities, alternate history, and other fringe theories as her favorite science fiction explanations. The Mandela effect has fueled numerous untestable theories, including that the phenomenon occurs as a result of string theory and the mixing of different universes. Such fringe theories have sparked intense debate. In March 2023 Broome reported that she experienced such harsh criticisms and attacks about the Mandela effect that she was taking a step back from discussing the phenomenon altogether. She reversed course later that year, however, and created a YouTube channel dedicated to the Mandela effect and updated her website that focused on the topic.