The Mandela Effect: What happens when false memories become real

Memory is often hazy, inconsistent and suggestible. But what happens when lots of people misremember the exact same thing?

Psychologists and researchers conclude that the Mandela Effect is similar in feeling and brain activity to deja vu or the distortion of memory.

Memory is an incredible thing. It is triggered by the oddest things; a faint smell, a song, or that one time when you wore the red jumper. Our memory can be extremely accurate, vivid, and yet also somewhat unreliable and suggestible. We trust our memory, for the most part, but most of us know that we should know better than to fully rely on it too. Memories fade, obscure, and can get us into slight trouble if we misremember, especially those important dates and milestones such as a Crystal Wedding Anniversary.

So, what does it mean when I remember something, and you remember the same thing, and the whole class vibes with that same memory, and yet every single one of us is wrong about how we remember that same something?

Think about how often you have said, “Luke, (deep breath) I am your father” for comic effect. Did you know this is not how Darth Vader dropped this truth bomb? Any die-hard Star Wars fan will tell you that Vader never used Luke’s name instead saying, “No, I am your father.” And yet, you’d be hard-pressed to remember it any other way. 

This is the Mandela Effect and after more than a decade, scientists have discovered that this kind of mass inconsistent false memory is a real phenomenon. Researchers from the University of Chicago have released the first-ever study on the Visual Mandela Effect. The paper, to be published in the journal Psychological Science, determined that there is genuine consistency in our misremembering. Something many of us would argue against. That is, until we see it for ourselves.

What is the Mandela Effect?

Paranormal researcher, Fiona Broome, coined the phrase the Mandela Effect when she detailed her misremembered recollection of Nelson Mandela dying in prison in 1980 when in fact, he was very much alive at the time and released from prison in 1990. What Broome uncovered was that many people shared her false memory. The Mandela Effect became synonymous with the theory that a group of people can misremember the same thing with the same level of detail.

For those intrigued by these nuances of memory, the Mandela Effect has also been attributed to the idea of the multiverse whereby there is an understanding that every universe includes parallel and alternate realities. Others have also linked this memory concept to conspiracies such as the vastness of the concept of the manipulation of memory. What psychologists and researchers of the Mandela Effect have considered is that it is more akin to the concept of Deja vú or the distortion of memory.

Paranormal researcher, Fiona Broome, coined the phrase the Mandela Effect when she detailed her misremembered recollection of Nelson Mandela dying in prison in 1980 when in fact, he was very much alive at the time

Essentially the Mandela Effect is concerned with the manifestation of false memories, the falsification of existing memories, and the confused recollection of events often on a widespread scale. In addition, the internet phenomenon of the Visual Mandela Effect can make you greatly question just how reliable your memory is. Where is the curl on the Coca-Cola logo? Does Curious George have a tail or not? Does Pikachu have a black-tipped tail? Is it The Flinstones or The Flintstones? Did the character Ilsa in Casablanca really say those iconic words, “Play it again, Sam” or if you remember correctly, did she actually say, “Play it once, Sam. For old time’s sake.” 

If you are now googling the answers to some of these memories and find that you have indeed misremembered, know that you are not alone. These fabricated twists of our memory are quite often widespread. We become so confident in our recollections that we don’t question them.

How we remember (and misremember) 

To overly simplify the science behind it, our memories are formed by the activation and tweaking of tiny subsets of neurons in our brain and the messages they send to form short-term and long-term memories. Long-term memories must be literally built into the neural synapses in our brains. Our memories are quite literally filed away to be retrieved at will.

It was long believed that once those memories were filed away, they could be redeemed as they were, perhaps with a little fading, but heavily constructed and consolidated. However, research conducted by neuroscientist Karim Nader uncovered that memories could be vulnerable to manipulation and change, with the possibility of needing to be rebuilt every time they are recalled. Nadar was researching the possibility of rebuilding memories in support of those suffering from PTSD and the manipulation of memories so that we may avoid living in the past.

What does this research mean? 

Within the study, researchers discovered consistent mistakes in the memories of participants as they recalled incorrectly visual images of pop culture figures and logos. They even struggled to recreate and draw the images despite having just seen the original. There was no real consistency for the mistakes and researchers are yet to come up with a tangible explanation for the Mandela Effect.

“In sum,” the researchers say in their discussion, “we revealed a set of images that cause consistent and shared false memories across people, spurring new questions on the nature of false memories. We show that the VME [Visual Mandela Effect] cannot be universally explained by a single account. Instead, perhaps different images cause a VME for different reasons.” 

The Mandela Effect is real, we’re just not entirely sure why or how it happens but this research paves the path for further research to find out what exactly causes false memories.