Have you ever had an experience where you are so sure you remember something as an obvious fact but it later turned out to be completely false?
When I last visited my family in the UK, my sister and I were talking about our grandmother’s death in 1992. I went on to mention how her husband, our grandfather, died a few years later. I was adamant this was the case – it’s such a clear memory! As it turns out, he died just a few months after my grandmother.
When we think about our memories, we might view them as recording machines that perfectly capture past events, both in the recent and distant past. But our memories don’t work that way. According to a 2014 study at Northwestern University, researchers found that the memory “rewrites the past with current information, updating your recollections with new experiences.”
So, what we absolutely know we remember correctly is often a flawed memory – and sometimes a memory of something that never happened or existed at all. The name for this psychological quirk is the Mandela Effect.
Coined by writer and researcher Fiona Broome, the Mandela Effect refers to a situation where a large group of people misremembers a historical event or detail, believing it to be true despite evidence to the contrary. One of the most famous examples of the Mandela Effect is the false memory that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s, when in reality, he passed away in 2013 after serving as the president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
The Mandela Effect is often attributed to the fallibility of human memory. It’s believed that false memories can be formed due to a variety of reasons, such as the conflation of imagination with reality or the mixing up of the true source of a memory. These false memories can then be spread within a group, with individuals unconsciously desiring to conform to the collective memory.
And before we all become smug and insist we could never be caught out by the Mandela Effect, we might have to share a piece of humble pie…
Examples of the Mandela Effect:
- It’s known as a rock anthem throughout the world, but most people incorrectly recall the original ending to Queen’s hit song, We are the Champions. The last line goes, “’cause we are the champions…” There is no, “…of the world” even though many will swear this is how it ends.
- If you’re a 90s kid, do you remember the black detailing on Pikachu’s tail? If you do, you need to go back and check – the tail is just yellow.
- Plenty of Star Wars fans will remember Darth Vader’s iconic line, “Luke, I am your father.” Except, that’s not what he says. The line is, “No, I am your father.“
- Have you ever bought shows from the footwear brand, Sketchers? If you think you have, think again. There’s no ‘t’ in the brand name – it’s simply Skechers.
- Another one for Star Wars fans. You might insist that the loveable robot, C-3PO is all gold, but if you look at his right leg, it’s silver from below the knee.
- “Mirror, Mirror on the wall…” – that famous line from Snow White, is actually, “Magic Mirror on the wall…”
So, the next time you feel absolutely sure of your memories, keep in mind that most of us will definitely end with, “of the world!!” as we pour our heart and soul into We are the Champions in the karaoke room. So long as you’re having fun, that’s all that matters.
On a serious note, the Mandela Effect serves as a reminder of the intricacies of the human mind and the potential for shared misconceptions. This has significant implications for when we share views, opinions, and news or social media items, and highlights the importance of being mindful of what we share in the knowledge that false information can all-to-easily be accepted as absolute fact.
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