Page 3 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

The Truth About The Mandela Effect 3

Did Tom Cruise really

dance in his underwear

and a pair of Ray-Bans in

“Risky Business”? If you

answered “yes,” you might

be suffering from the

Mandela Effect.

by Jake Rossen

Would you believe us if we told you the
most famous line of 1980’s Star Wars
sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, was
never uttered? Darth Vader doesn’t reveal
can easily take subjects with similar traits 4. The Fruit of the Loom Label
his paternity to Luke Skywalker by
and blend them together. “In studies,
saying, “Luke, I am your father.” He
when you show participants word pairs Some people have a fond recollection of
actually says, “No, I am your father.” The
and ask them to remember ‘blackmail’ a cornucopia of fruit on the label inside
line is but one instance of what blogger
and ‘jailbird,’ half of them will later say this popular brand of underwear. But the
Fiona Broome dubbed the “Mandela
they remember learning the word fruit was never spilling out of a basket: It
Effect” a decade ago, after she learned
blackbird,” Brewer says. was always illustrated as a pile of food.
that a number of people shared her
“The more exposure we get to things like
erroneous belief that human rights
2. Jiffy Peanut Butter advertising, the more memories for
activist Nelson Mandela had perished in
things become decontextualized,”
prison in the 1980s. (He died a free man
If you looked forward to your school Brewer says. In other words, people who
in 2013.)
lunch break because your parent or remember the cornucopia might not have

guardian packed a Jiffy peanut butter a distinct memory of pulling on a pair of
With apologies to conspiracy theorists,
sandwich, your childhood may be a lie. briefs and seeing it. “They remember
the idea of a shared false memory isn’t
While both Jif and Skippy brands have fruit was involved, and then begin to
proof of alternate realities. It’s simply a
lined store shelves, there’s never been a think, ‘Well, how is fruit usually
product of how our brain works to
“Jiffy” brand. “They may have had a portrayed? Okay, maybe a cornucopia.’
retrieve information. “What we know
false memory by incorporating elements That’s reconstruction.”
about false memory is that it arises
in the reconstruction process of Jif and
through the reconstruction process,”
Skippy,” Brewer says. “Now that’s (Continued on Page 4)
Gene Brewer, Ph.D., an associate
encoded in their memory, and the false
professor in cognitive psychology at
memory is what they’re remembering.
Arizona State University, tells Mental
They don’t remember the experience of
Floss. “When you recall an event, you
seeing it but the experience of falsely
use memories around it, taking elements
remembering.”
or pieces of other events and fitting them
where they make sense.”
3. “Hello, Clarice”

Take a look at 10 of the more prevalent
The tense meetings between imprisoned
examples of things that people swear are
cannibal Hannibal Lecter and FBI agent
real but are merely a product of the
Clarice Starling fueled 1991’s The
brain’s imperfect recall.
Silence of the Lambs, based on the
Thomas Harris novel. “Hello, Clarice”
1. The Monopoly Man’s Monocle
has become a default line reading for
THE COFFEE THAT YOUR BRAIN
people looking to emulate Anthony
For decades, Rich Uncle Pennybags (or WILL LOVE!
Hopkins’s creepy Lecter. But the killer
Mr. Monopoly) has been the de facto
never says the line in the movie. Instead,
mascot for Monopoly, the Parker
he says “Good morning” when meeting
Brothers (now Hasbro) game that
Starling for the first time. People
somehow made real estate exciting.
remember Lecter greeting Starling and
Some insist Pennybags completes his top
remember him saying “Clarice” in a
hat and business attire ensemble with a
melodic tone, creating a false memory of
monocle, but that’s not true. He’s never
a classic non-quote. “Your memory can
worn one. People appear to be conflating
try to recreate things based on available
his depiction with that of Mr. Peanut, the
evidence using context cues,” Brewer
Planters mascot who sports a single
says.
corrective lens. That’s because our brain www.beautifulmindcoffee.ca