We explain what the Mandela effect is in collective memory and why it occurs. Also, examples from history and popular culture.
What is the Mandela effect?
It is popularly known as the Mandela effect. social phenomenon that installs in the collective memory memories or certainties of things that never happened but when validated both individually and collectively, they are taken as true, thus potentially contradicting evident reality.
It is named after the South African politician Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), thanks to the American self-proclaimed paranormal scholar (that is, pseudoscientist) Fiona Broome who, when news of Mandela's death was learned in 2013, stated that he had really died in the 1980s. The curious thing is that many people said they “remember” the “real” death of Mandela, against all objective evidence.
This is not the only case of the Mandela effect, and many times these fictitious memories give rise to conspiracy theories, misunderstandings or fake news. Broome herself in 2013 stated that there was an international conspiracy that used Mandela as a symbol, and there were even those who claimed that it was clear evidence of the existence of parallel universes. All of this, the result of collective (bad) memory, and the undeniable power of fiction.
See also: Superstition
Why does the Mandela effect happen?
The scientific explanation of the so-called Mandela effect has to do with the power of suggestion and group pressure capable of inducing people to think in extravagant ways, but also with the nature of memory.
What we call “memories” are mental impressions that are more or less faithful to the truth of what happened, which as time passes and the lived experience becomes further and further away, become more nebulous and imprecise, except for those that we tell often.
As anyone who has played “crashed telephone” (in which a message is sent through a chain of listeners and ends up being something completely different from the original) knows, With each repetition of a story some of its characteristics are altered.
Thus, it is possible that memory is susceptible to this type of “rewriting,” especially when it comes to memories that are not central to our subjective experience. The human brain cannot deal with remembering absolutely everything we have experienced, and much of what we remember is based on the stories we have given about what we experienced, since remembering the story is simpler and more feasible than reliving the experience. This is a matter of efficiency.
Thus, it is possible that many people remember things in a different way than they were, for the simple fact that they have told them that way over the years. If we add to this the pressure of belonging to the group and the suggestive power of the Internet, we can understand why the so-called Mandela effect occurs.
Examples of the Mandela effect
Other known cases of the Mandela effect are the following:
- When in 2016 Mother Teresa of Calcutta was canonized by the Catholic Church, many said they remembered how she had already been canonized in 1990.
- In the film Casablanca There is a famous scene between pianist “Sam” (Dooley Wilson) and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), whose most famous line is often quoted as Play it again, Sam or “Play it again, Sam.” But this line is never spoken in the film.
- Many remember the iconic character from the board game Monopoly dresses like a 19th century bourgeois, including a monocle; but the truth is that in none of his appearances does he present this type of single-eyed lens.
- In the film The empire strikes back from the saga star warseveryone remembers the famous phrase of the antagonist, Darth Vader: “Luke, I am your father”. However, in said climactic scene, the evil Sith lord never utters his son's name.
- It is commonly attributed to Don Quixote, the famous novel by Cervantes the quote “They bark, Sancho, a sign that we are riding” or some similar variant. But the truth is that this phrase never appears in either of the two volumes of Don Quixote.
Continue with: Butterfly effect
References
- “Mandela Effect” on Wikipedia.
- “The Mandela Effect” at the Goethe Institut.
- “The Mandela effect, the brain 'shortcuts' that can benefit fake news” in El Diario (Spain).
- “What is the Mandela effect and what are the most famous cases that are remembered?” by Ada Nuño in El Confidencial.
- “The Mandela Effect: How False Memories Occur” in Healthline.
