The Mandela Effect: How Our Memory Corrupts

The Mandela Effect has been a topic of discussion for years. The phenomenon occurs when a large group of people shares a false memory. The name itself was coined by Fiona Broome, who had a false memory of the death of the South African leader Nelson Mandela. Thousands of people recall Mandela dying in the 1980s when in reality, he died in 2013. The Mandela Effect now includes hundreds of other inconsistent memories and misconceptions.

Some people, including Fiona Broome, believe the Mandela Effect is caused by “alternate realities” where you drifted from one universe to another. Thus, your memories are mixed with the current reality. Broome admits that she has no idea if this is true, but it is still her favorite explanation. However, scientists and doctors have a better answer for the Mandela effect.

Research, testing, and evidence have proven our human memory’s limits. Its unreliability explains the Mandela Effect and vice versa. The Mandela Effect is an example of just how faulty our memory is. False memories are common, and they are a reasonable cause of the Mandela Effect. They are when a person recalls something different from what actually happened, or sometimes an event that never happened at all. We always will have incorrect memories, but we won’t even notice them. That’s the takeaway of false memories: they are purposely hard to detect because, well, we think our memory is correct.

Take the misinformation effect for example; it is when an existing memory is replaced or corrupted by misinformation. Inaccurate eyewitness accounts are a result of this effect. A person could have seen a man wearing green shoes, but they were asked, “The shoes were blue, but what color was the hat?” With the supplied misinformation, they now believe the shoes were blue. The eyewitness could then give more inaccurate details to accommodate the mistaken memory.

Another example of our fragile memory is confabulation; it is when your brain makes up a memory to fill in the ‘gaps.’ It is also called “honest lying” because you consider your memory to be factual, and you have no intention of lying. It is a common symptom of people with dementia. A person with dementia could confabulate and have no means of lying. However, people without dementia can still confabulate.

Opponents of the Mandela Effect conclude the human brain falsifies memories so convincingly that you start to believe they are true. Proponents argue the memories are correct, and reality itself changed. Their main contention is that false memories cannot explain why sometimes thousands of people who have never met recall the same memory.

A very popular example of the Mandela Effect would be the case with the Berenstain Bears. It is a popular children’s book and tv show in the U.S. Most people remember the name being “Berenstein” instead of “Berenstain,” but this is simple to explain. The son of the series’ creator said, “And when I was a kid growing up, nobody pronounced it correctly…They always said “Berensteen” or “Bernstein…” This frequent incorrect pronunciation could lead the brain to believe it indeed is spelled “Berenstein.” Also, surnames ending with “stein” are far more common than “stain.” Personally, I’ve had multiple teachers with “stein” ending their name.

Another example is the Monopoly man. Many people recall him wearing a monocle, but in reality, he is not. An explanation for this is that monocles were at a time very popular. Monocles were commonly associated with the wealthy and upper class. There also have been various popular figures sporting a monocle, and sometimes even a top hat and suit, just like the monopoly man.

Unless you believe human memory is flawless, some experiences we have are a result of false memories. People occasionally sharing the same false memory should not be a surprise as we live in a networked world where unrelated people can have the same experiences, including ones that are from false memories. If you find yourself facing the Mandela Effect, you can most likely do a little research and realize how your memories could have lapsed…or get excited about shifting into another universe, your choice.