The Mandela Effect and How We Share False Memories (2024)

The Mandela effect refers to a situation in which a large mass of people believes that an event occurred when it did not. The term was originated in 2009 by Fiona Broome, after she discovered that she, along with a number of others, believed that Nelson Mandela had died in the 1980s (when he actually died in 2013).

Looking at the origin of the Mandela effect, some famous examples, as well as some potential explanations for this strange confluence of perceptions can help to shed light on this unique phenomenon.

Origins of the Mandela Effect

The term "Mandela Effect" was first coined in 2009 by Fiona Broome when she created a website to detail her observance of the phenomenon. Broome was at a conference talking with other people about how she remembered the tragedy of former South African president Nelson Mandela's death in a South African prison in the 1980s.

However, Nelson Mandela did not die in the 1980s in a prison—he passed away in 2013. As Broome began to talk to other people about her memories, she learned that she was not alone. Others remembered seeing news coverage of his death as well as a speech by his widow.

Broome was shocked that such a large mass of people could remember the same identical event in such detail when it never happened. Encouraged by her book publisher, she began her website to discuss what she called the Mandela Effect and other incidents like it.

Notable Examples of the Mandela Effect

The story of Nelson Mandela is not the only example of this type of false group memory. As the concept of the Mandela Effect grew along with Broome's website, other group false memories began to emerge.

Henry VIII Eating a Turkey Leg

People had a memory that the above portrait of Henry VIII featured him eating or holding a turkey leg, though no such painting has ever existed. There have, however, been similar cartoons created. This may be related to the common knowledge of Henry VIII as a large man.

Luke, I Am Your Father

If you saw Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back, you probably remember Darth Vader uttering the famous line, "Luke, I am your father" in the pivotal scene near the end of the film.

You might be surprised to learn, then, that the line was actually, "No, I am your father." Most people have memories of the line being the former rather than the latter, and it is commonly quoted incorrectly.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

If you watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, you probably remember the line, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" As you can see from the above subtitled screenshot, the line actually began with the phrase "Magic mirror on the wall" instead. It probably doesn't help matters that Julia Roberts and Lily Collins starred in a 2012 live-action film based on Snow White called "Mirror Mirror"!

Oscar Meyer or Oscar Mayer?

There is some controversy over the spelling of the famous brand of hot dogs, Oscar Mayer weiners. Some people claim to remember the brand being spelled "Meyer" instead of "Mayer," which is the correct spelling.

To be fair, the brand pronunciation is a closer match for the "Meyer" spelling, while "Mayer" is often pronounced differently, as in the musician John Mayer's name.

Location of New Zealand

Where is New Zealand in relation to Australia? If you look at a map, you will see that it is southeast of the country. However, there is a community of people who claim to remember New Zealand being northeast instead of southeast.

Berenstein Bears

The famous children's book series the "Berenstain Bears" created by Stan and Jan Berenstain is not immune to the Mandela effect. Many people report remembering the name being the Berenstein Bears (spelled with an "e" instead of an "a").

This is similar to the Oscar Mayer issue and hints at perhaps an underlying cognitive reason for the Mandela Effect instead of parallel realities, as some people believe.

Shazaam, Starring Sinbad?

One of the most well-known examples of the Mandela Effect is the collective memory of a movie called "Shazaam" that starred the actor/comedian Sinbad in the 1990s.

In fact, no such movie exists, although there was a children's movie called Kazaam starring Shaquille O'Neal, and some other coincidences that could help to explain how this movie became created (or remembered) in many people's minds. Even more confusing, there is now a movie series based on the DC Comics superhero Shazam—though it does not star Sinbad.

Pikachu's Black-Tipped Tail

Many people report remembering Pikachu, a Pokémon character, as having a black-tipped tail. In reality, the character has always had a solid yellow tail.The confusion or false memory may stem from the fact that Pikachu, as you can see, does have black-tipped ears.

Mickey Mouse's Suspenders

Mickey Mouse might be the most famous cartoon character in the world, but even Disney's famous mouse is often misremembered in the minds of fans. People often report the character wearing suspenders when he does not.The original Mickey is wearing shorts, but is completely unclothed on the top half of his body—how scandalous.

Sally Field's Famous Oscar Speech

When Sally Field won an Oscar in 1985, her acceptance speech included the oft-repeated, oft-parodied line "You like me, you really like me!" Except, what she actually said was "I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me."

Children of the '90s probably owe their false memory to Jim Carrey's parody of the line in his film The Mask, when his character utters the line "You love me, you really love me" in clear homage to Field's speech.

No, Really, It's Not Looney Toons

Yes, the Looney Tunes are in fact cartoons, not cartunes. And yes, you may remember watching the next generation of characters on a TV show called Tiny Toon Adventures. Nonetheless, the original show was Looney Tunes, not Looney Toons, as a companion to Merrie Melodies.

Jiffy Peanut Butter

There is Jiffy Lube, there's Jiffy Pop popcorn, there's Skippy peanut butter, and you may be able to whip up a PB&J in a jiffy, but no, there is no such thing as Jiffy Peanut Butter. It is and has always been Jif, though many people would swear to the contrary.

Curious George's Tail

This one is, well, curious. The assumption is that Curious George is a monkey, and most monkeys are understood to have tails. Many remember Curious George having a tail, but alas, everyone's favorite curious primate is in fact tailless. We hope this hasn't caused George any kind of existential crisis.

What the Heck Is a Froot Loop?

You can thank Kellogg's for this entry in the weird spelling section of the Mandela effect catalog. While the very well-known cereal is supposedly fruit-flavored, they decided to lean into the loops and double up on the double O's, opting for Froot Loops instead of Fruit Loops, much to our surprise.

Fruit of the Loom's Logo

You may not be able to identify every piece of fruit in the logo for the clothing brand Fruit of the Loom, but everybody at least knows that there is a cornucopia behind all the fruit, right? Wrong! Just ask the company itself—there is no cornucopia, even if we all remember it.

C-3PO's Leg Is What?

That's right, C-3PO, the famed Star Wars droid, has a silver right leg, but we won't blame you for getting this one wrong. Given the lower resolution of older films, the character often being shot from the waist up, and the fact that the original line of toys featured an all-gold C-3PO, it's no surprise how surprising it is to discover he had a silver leg all along.

"Play It Again, Sam"...Or Not

"Casablanca" is one of the most famous films of all-time. And while, many decades later, more and more people have not seen it, what is nonetheless known is the famous line "Play it again, Sam." Unfortunately, if you are familiar with that line, you may be confused to learn that it was never actually said in that exact way in the film. Ingrid Bergman's character does, however, say "Play it once, Sam." Adding to the confusion may be that Woody Allen made a film in 1972 called "Play It Again, Sam" about a film critic obsessed with "Casablanca".

It's a Beautiful Day...Where?

Hollywood contributed to the Mandela effect when the 2019 Mister Rogers biopic was named "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," a reference to the opening line of the famous song that opened every episode of Fred Rogers' show—"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood." In reality, however, the song opens with the line "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood."

Mr. Monopoly's Monocle

Rich Uncle Pennybags aka Mr. Monopoly sure seems like the type to wear a monocle. But in reality, the leading man of the board game everyone has played but nobody has ever finished can see just fine without a monocle. The leading theories are that we mistake him for the monocled Mr. Peanut. Oddly, there is yet another Jim Carrey connection as well—a scene in Ace Ventura 2 features the pet detective encountering a monocled man he refers to as "The Monopoly Guy."

Explanations for the Mandela Effect

So why would this effect even happen? Let's explore.

False Memories

A more likely explanation for the Mandela effect involves false memories. Before we consider what is meant by false memories, let's look at an example of the Mandela effect as it will help us to understand how memory can be faulty (and may lead to the phenomenon that we are describing).

Who was Alexander Hamilton? Most Americans learned in school that he was a founding father of the United States of America but that he was not a president. However, when asked about the presidents of the United States, many people mistakenly believe that Hamilton was a president. Why?

If we consider a simple neuroscience explanation, the memory for Alexander Hamilton is encoded in an area of the brain where the memories for the presidents of the United States are stored. Themeans by which memory traces are storedis called the engram and the framework in which similar memories areassociatedwith each other is called the schema.

So when people try to recall Hamilton, this sets off the neuronsin close connection to each other, bringing with it the memory of the presidents. (Though this is an oversimplified explanation, it illustrates the general process.)

Confabulation

Confabulation involves your brain filling in gaps that are missing in your memories to make more sense of them. This isn't lying, but rather remembering details that never happened. Confabulation tends to increase with age.

Misleading Post-Event Information

Information that you learn after an event can change your memory of an event. This includes event subtle information and helps to explain why eyewitness testimony can be unreliable.

Priming

Priming describes the factors leading up to an event that affects our perception of it. Also called suggestibility and presupposition, priming is the difference between asking how short a person is, versus how tall a person is. Saying, "Did you see the black car?" instead of "...a black car?" makes a subtle suggestion that influences response and memory.

Alternate Realities

One theory for the basis for the Mandela effect originates from quantum physics and relates to the idea that rather than one timeline of events, alternate realities or universes may be taking place and mixing with our timeline. In theory, this would result in groups of people having the same memories because the timeline has been altered as we shift between these different realities.

You aren't alone if you think this sounds unrealistic. Unfortunately, the idea of alternate realities is unfalsifiable, meaning there is no way to disprove that these other universes don’t exist truly.

This is why such a far-fetched theory continues to gain traction among the Mandela effect communities. You can't prove it's not real, so you can't discount the possibility of it. For many people, the excitement of a bit of mystery in everyday life also likely comes into play.

The Internet's Impact

The role of the internet in influencing the memories of the masses should not be underestimated. It's probably no coincidence that consideration of the Mandela effect has grown in this digital age.

The internet is a powerful way to spread information, and with this spreading of information comes the potential for misconceptions and falsehoods to gain traction. People then begin to create communities based around these falsehoods and what was once in the imagination starts to seem factual.

In fact, in a large study of over 100,000newsstories discussed across Twitter, conducted over a period of 10 years, showed that hoaxes and rumors won out over the truth every time by about 70%. This wasn't the result of manipulation or bots either—real verified accounts of real people were responsible for spreading false information at a much higher rate than the truth.

As each person chimes in with their own experience or memory of an event, those false memories could affect the memories of other people, thus coloring them to remember the events in the same way.

For example, Sinbad did star in other movies in the 1990s and appeared in a movie poster for the film "Houseguest" coming out of a mailbox (this looked similar to a genie, which could explain the association with the movie "Shazaam"). Sinbad also dressed up like a genie for an event that he hosted in the 1990s.

When one person mentioned this movie "Shazaam" (likely on the internet), it altered the memories of other people who tried to recall the movies that Sinbad made from the 1990s. Online communities spread this information until it appeared to be factual.

This explanation is supported by evidence that remembering something repeatedly builds your confidence in the memory even if it grows more inaccurate over time. As more and more people provided incorrect details, these become incorporated into other people's memories as facts and strengthened their conviction that they were correct.

The Mandela effect continues to be hotly debated, despite reasonable evidence that it is more likely explained in terms of the fallibility of human memory than some form of parallel universes at work.

Of course, we don't know everything. As more incidents of the Mandela effect continue to occur, perhaps more research into the origins will shed light on the causes.