What is the MANDELA EFFECT?

Have you ever remembered living a specific experience and it turned out that the reality was very different?

Imagine your favorite song, the one that you can sing from memory without making a mistake. Now imagine that, suddenly, you realize that something is wrong with the letter and that it has changed the order of its words, how is that possible? Maybe you have remembered something that has never been like this?

This phenomenon is known as the Mandela effect, a term recently coined by the Internet user Fiona Broome and refers to what happens in our mind when it generates memories that have never been real. In the following Psychology-Online article, we tell you what is the mandela effect and we expose you real examples of it.

Index

1. What is the Mandela effect?
2. The Mandela effect according to psychology
3. Mental phenomena of the Mandela effect
4. Examples of the Mandela effect
5. Is the Mandela effect a lie?

We know the Mandela effect as that phenomenon in which two or more individuals, normally a fairly large group, share a memory that has no real basis, that is, that has never happened.

This effect was dubbed the "Mandela effect" because her discoverer, Fiona Broone, realized that both she and a great group of people perfectly remember how Nelson Mandela (the South African leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner) died in prison in 1980. The reality is quite different as Nelson Mandela was released and appointed President of the Republic of South Africa in 1994, dying years later, in 2013.

This effect is especially curious since these people even remember in detail everything that "happened", what could this phenomenon be due to?

The same author, Fiona Broone, proposes a theory based on quantum physics and refers to this experience as a "possibility within different parallel realities". However, in this article on the Mandela effect, we will provide you with a psychological explanation on why this surprising phenomenon can occur.

To understand the Mandela effect, we must be clear that memory is a cognitive ability that takes place in our brain and therefore has a large subjective component. When we generate a memory, we activate a network of neurons that transfer specific information to different parts of the brain responsible for storing information, such as the hippocampus or the prefrontal cortex.

That means that the birth of the memory is not in the experience itself, but in the mental processing of said experience, so, surprise! we can generate memories that have never been reality.

In fact, the Mandela effect is also influenced not only by the generation of the memory, but also by the attempt to recover said memory. And it is that, human memory is largely of constructive nature. That means that when we retrieve a memory, we usually fill in the gaps with logical conjectures or experiences that may or may not be reality.

The Mandela effect has been tried to study under many lights. There are various mental phenomena that try to explain the Mandela effect. The appearance of these phenomena does not have to be understood as symptoms of a mental disorder. Next, we are going to see the mental phenomena of the Mandela effect:

• Collusion: we people fill in the gaps in our memory with fabricated memories. This phenomenon is common in humans who have suffered severe trauma, as well as in cases of amnesia and dementia. The creation of these memories is done unconsciously and the individual himself believes that the memory of her is the one that he or she has created.
• External induction of memories: hypnosis or suggestion can induce memories. The person who undergoes these processes can change their perception of the facts. Sometimes hypnosis is used as a method to recover memories, but it can lead to the generation of false memories.
• Cryptomnesia: phenomenon is known as the fact of experiencing as one's own an experience of another person, or believing to have had an original idea and genuine, but, in reality, such an idea already existed and came from a memory that has previously been stored unintentionally.

There are the most curious Mandela effects. Here are some examples of the Mandela effect that are really interesting:

The Mandela effect in movies

You may know the famous scene from Star Wars in which the villain tells the hero "Luke, I am your father."

Well actually, the villain NEVER said that. Actually the actual dialogue in the film says, "No, I am your father." It is another very clear example of how the Mandela effect can affect us all.

The Mandela effect in songs and television series

• The song "We are the Champions"from Queen, it doesn't end with the phrase"... of the world"
• "The Simpsons" is actually written "The Simpsons", without an S at the end.
• In Snow White, Maleficent says "Magic mirror" does not say "mirror Mirror"

The Mandela effect in games and cartoons

• We have all played at some time Monopoly. The logo for this game is a lord. The Mandela effect in Monopoly is found precisely in the mental image that is usually had of this man. It is common to remember that he wears a monocle, but in reality he is not.
• If we talk about Pokémon, everyone immediately associates it with Pikachu. A most loved character and easily recognizable by its yellow color. But what colors does it have on its tail? The Mandela effect in Pikachu is suffered by those people who remember that this beloved Pokémon has a black part at the end of the tail, but in reality it has never had that strip.

The Mandela effect on social media

A few years ago, in the United States, a man published an article on the networks talking about a series of children's drawings that were broadcast during his childhood: Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit. In fact, he himself published a video where the same series could be seen. Many users of forums such as Reddit or Forocoches affirmed that they had also seen that series and that they brought back very good memories.

However, it was a joke. There never was such an animation series and the memories of Internet users were fruit of mere suggestion.

Many people have found a logical explanation for all this and believe that the Mandela effect theory does not hold up as a scientific phenomenon. For example, we remember the Queen song in a way because the chorus has that structure (We are the campions... of the world). On the other hand, other people believe that those who are affected by the Mandela effect are lying or conniving stories that they know is not true.

However, if we can say something about psychology and the human mind, it is that memory is highly suggestible and memories can be easily molded. Therefore, people who have experienced the Mandela effect have no intention of lying, they are simply trying to build memories from information that they have not lived in the past.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to The Mandela effect: definition and examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Social psychology.

• Aamodt, C. (2017). The Mandela effect and shared false memories. Free letters, (187), 56-57.
• Fitak, L. (2016). The Mandela effect: collusion or reality? New York: Coney Island Books.