Large Scale Mistakes: The Mandela Effect

Humans are imperfect, an obvious statement but not always one that’s taken to heart. One aspect of the human brain that is particularly imperfect is the brain. Psychological manipulation is the basis of large parts of marketing, politicians try to influence people in ways they don’t even realize, and most importantly, memory really doesn’t work that well.

And admittedly that’s an unfair statement, the brain is able to recall enormous amounts of information, it’s unfair to say memory doesn’t work. More accurately, memory doesn’t work as a fair representation of reality.

Recent studies show almost 50% of people can’t tell real memories from fake ones. The replacement of actual memories with the memory of the memory itself is also notably common. False memories can be suggested to and taken as truth with relative ease. The combination of these factors is what creates the Mandela Effect.

The Mandela Effect is the mass misremembering of an event, name, or description. Prominent examples include Nelson Mandela’s death in 1980, Darth Vader’s “Luke I am your father” line, and Jiffy peanut butter. None of these things actually happened or exist. Conspiracy theorists have taken to the idea of multiple dimensions or government conspiracy. The reality is simple though, humans are imperfect, even together. 

Mandela Effect
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Maren

Maren