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The Mandela Effect is Playing Tricks On You 85

The ‘Mandela Effect’ and

how your mind is playing

tricks on you

by Neil Dagnall and Ken Drinkwater

Have you ever been convinced that something is
a particular way only to discover you’ve
remembered it all wrong? If so, it sounds like
you’ve experienced the phenomenon known as
the Mandela Effect.
This form of collective misremembering
of common events or details first emerged in
2010, when countless people on the internet
falsely remembered Nelson Mandela was dead.
It was widely believed he had died in prison
during the 1980s. In reality, Mandela was
actually freed in 1990 and passed away in 2013
– despite some people’s claims they remember
clips of his funeral on TV.
Paranormal consultant Fiona Broome
coined the term “Mandela Effect” to explain this
collective misremembering, and then other
examples started popping up all over the
distinguish between real and imagined even. US Back to reality
internet. For instance, it was wrongly recalled
professor of psychology, Jim Coan,
that C-3PO from Star Wars was gold, actually
demonstrated how easily this can happen using Frequently reported errors can then become part
one of his legs is silver. Likewise, people often
the “Lost in the Mall” procedure. of collective reality. And the internet can
wrongly believe that the Queen in Snow White
This saw Coan give his family members reinforce this process by circulating false
says, “Mirror, mirror on the wall”. The correct
short narratives describing childhood events. information. For example, simulations of the
phrase is “magic mirror on the wall”.
One, about his brother getting lost in a shopping 1997 Princess Diana car crash are regularly
Broome explains the Mandela Effect via
mall, was invented. Not only did Coan’s brother mistaken for real footage.
pseudoscientific theories. She claims that
believe the event occurred, he also added In this way then, the majority of
differences arise from movement between
additional detail. When cognitive psychologist Mandela Effects are attributable to memory
parallel realities (the multiverse). This is based
and expert on human memory, Elizabeth Loftus, errors and social misinformation. The fact that a
on the theory that within each universe
applied the technique to larger samples, 25% of lot of the inaccuracies are trivial, suggests they
alternative versions of events and objects exist.
participants failed to recognise the event was result from selective attention or faulty
Broome also draws comparisons
false. inference.
between existence and the holodeck of the USS
This is not to say that the Mandela Effect
Enterprise from Star Trek. The holodeck was a Incorrect recall
virtual reality system, which created recreational is not explicable in terms of the multiverse.
Indeed, the notion of parallel universes is
experiences. By her explanation, memory errors
When it comes to the Mandela Effect, many consistent with the work of quantum physicists.
are software glitches. This is explained as being
examples are attributable to so called “schema But until the existence of alternative realities is
similar to the film The Matrix.
driven errors”. Schemas are organised “packets” established, psychological theories appear much
Other theories propose that the Mandela
of knowledge that direct memory. In this way, more plausible. []
Effect evidences changes in history caused by
schemas facilitate understanding of material, but
time travellers. Then there are the claims that
can produce distortion.
distortions result from spiritual attacks linked to
Frederic Bartlett outlined this process in
Satan, black magic or witchcraft. But although
appealing to many, these theories are not his 1932 book Remembering. Barlett read the
Canadian Indian folktale “War of the Ghosts” to
scientifically testable.
participants. He found that listeners omitted
unfamiliar details and transformed information
Where’s the science?
to make it more understandable.
This process is called “effort after
Psychologists explain the Mandela Effect via meaning” and occurs in real world situations
memory and social effects – particularly false
too. For instance, research has previously shown
memory. This involves mistakenly recalling ICUUCMETV
how when participants’ recall the contents of a
events or experiences that have not occurred, or
psychologist’s office they tend to remember the
distortion of existing memories. The
consistent items such as bookshelves, and omit
unconscious manufacture of fabricated or Is
the inconsistent items – like a picnic basket.
misinterpreted memories is called
Schema theory explains why previous
confabulation. In everyday life confabulation is Coming!
research shows that when the majority of
relatively common.
participants are asked to draw a clock face from
False memories occur in a number of
ways. For instance, the Deese-Roediger and memory, they mistakenly draw IV rather than
IIII. Clocks often use IIII because it is more
McDermott paradigm demonstrates how
attractive.
learning a list of words that contain closely
Other examples of the Mandela Effect
related items – such as “bed” and “pillow” –
are the mistaken belief that Uncle Pennybags
produces false recognition of related, but non
(Monopoly man) wears a monocle, and that the
presented words – such as “sleep”.
product title “KitKat” contains a hyphen (“Kit-
Memory inaccuracy can also arise from
Kat”). But this is simply explained by over-
what’s known as “source monitoring errors”.
generalisation of spelling knowledge.
These are instances where people fail to