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Ben Carson and the Mandela Effect 83

Ben Carson and the

Mandela Effect

David Ludden, PhD

For years, Republican presidential candidate
Ben Carson has claimed that he was offered a
full scholarship to attend the United States
Military Academy at West Point but turned it
down to attend Yale. Carson has repeated this
claim on numerous occasions and even includes
it in his book Gifted Hands. Although the story
is inspirational, there’s a problem—it never
happened.
When Kyle Cheney of the news site
Politico published a story claiming that Carson
had fabricated the event, the candidate protested
vehemently, insisting that his words had been
misrepresented. Cheney had reported that the
USMA had no record of an application from Ben
Carson, and furthermore that there’s no such
thing as a “full scholarship” to West Point since his arguments. Besides, if you buy into the idea this also means that anyone making a public
the military academy charges no tuition or fees. of memories from alternate universes, no claim should first fact-check their own memory.
As a high school student, Carson had amount of logic or reasoning will dissuade you Just because you remember something “as if it
been a member of the ROTC, and West Point from your beliefs. But if you’d like to learn more had happened yesterday,” this doesn’t mean that
would have been a logical next step in a military about the ways our memories change over time, you recall it correctly.
career. To get into West Point, you need a you can watch Elizabeth Loftus’s fascinating Admitting that your memory of an event
nomination from a high-ranking member of the TED Talk on the unreliability of memory. is incorrect can be difficult. Instead of meekly
government. Carson claimed that by “offer” he From my perspective as a cognitive eating our slice of humble pie, we become
meant that military leaders he met through psychologist, there’s more than faulty memory defensive: “That’s not what I meant.” “You’re
ROTC told him they could arrange a nomination behind the Mandela effect and Ben Carson’s twisting my words.” “You’re taking me out of
for him. And as for the “full scholarship”—well, imaginary scholarship from West Point. It’s not context.”
all students at the Military Academy get a full just that our memories are unreliable, it’s that Or else we concoct elaborate stories to
scholarship, so what’s the big deal? our intuitions about how memory works are explain why our memories are true even when
If you’re a Democrat, you probably view inaccurate as well. it’s obvious they’re not. As far as I know, Carson
this as a clear case of dissembling—getting We’d like to think of memory as a record hasn’t invoked the Mandela effect. But who
caught in a lie and trying to twist it into a truth. of our past. However, as I’ve argued elsewhere knows? Maybe in some alternate universe, Ben
If you’re a Republican, you no doubt see this in this blog, record-keeping isn’t part of our Carson really did get an offer of a full
incident as yet another witch hunt by the liberal memory’s job description. Instead, it’s charged scholarship from West Point. Just not in this one.
media. If you’re a cognitive psychologist, you with helping us predict the future to guide
know this is one more example of just how behavior, and to this end it selectively stores bits From the Pages of “Did You Know?”
unreliable our memories are. And if you have an and pieces of our experience that might come in by Rob McConnell:
inclination toward the paranormal, you might handy. Our memories simply aren’t concerned
even consider this to be another instance of the with historical accuracy, and any bits of DYK...Maya Angelou was the first black U.S.
Mandela effect. information acquired later that may help with Poet Laureate.
According to paranormal researcher future predictions get woven into the fabric of DYK...The Gulf Oil Company was the first
Fiona Broome, the Mandela effect occurs memory as though they’d always been there. U.S. petroleum firm to distribute free road
whenever a vivid personal memory is found to When we attempt to recollect the past, maps, in 1913.
conflict with the historical record. Broome we’re asking our memories to do something they DYK...Monaco’s principal source of income
recalls TV reports from around 1980 that Nelson were never designed for. Instead of calling up a is from gambling.
Mandela had died in prison. Naturally, she was series of events as they occurred, the mind DYK...Robert F. Kennedy’s 11th child, Rory
surprised to learn of his release and election as scrounges up bits and pieces of stored Elizabeth, was born six months after his
president of South Africa in 1994. When she experiences and constructs them into a story that death.
shared this experience with friends at Dragon makes sense in the present. And each time a DYK...“Lala” is Swahili for “sleep.”
Con, she learned that others had had similar story is retold, whatever embellishments that DYK...The first U.S. Supreme Court decision
“false memories.” might have been added for literary effect get was West v. Barnes, tried in the August 1791
Broome believes memories that are out encoded along with the original events. That’s term.
of sync with recorded history occur because our why “the fish that got away” gets bigger and DYK...The first cafeteria in the U.S. was
minds get entangled with alternate universes. bigger with each retelling. opened in 1895 in Chicago by Ernest Kimball
According to the “Many Worlds” hypothesis I doubt Carson ever intentionally lied DYK...The first blue jeans, invented in 1853
proposed by quantum physicists Hugh Everett about West Point. I can see how an by Levis Strauss, were called, “bibles
and Bryce DeWitt, the world splits into parallel impressionable youth being told that he was a overalls.”
universes every time a quantum event happens. good candidate for the Military Academy DYK...The Globe Theatre was built in
Thus, while Nelson Mandela did not die in (which, incidentally, has free tuition) can turn London in 1599.
prison in the 1980s, at least in this universe, into a middle-aged politician telling people he’d DYK...The winner of the first Kentucky
there is some other universe in which this did been offered a full scholarship from West Point. Derby was Aristides, ridden by Oliver Lewis,
occur. And Broome’s memory of the event is Understanding that human memory works this on May 17, 1875.
proof that her mind has come into contact with way, however, doesn’t exonerate Carson.
that alternate universe! Public officials in this country have Available at
Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic always undergone the scrutiny of the press. And
Magazine, does an excellent job of debunking in our information age, there’s no such thing as www.robmcconnell.ca
the Mandela effect. So there’s little I can add to a private record. Any claim by a public figure
can be fact-checked, and it should be, too. But