New study seeks to explain the ‘Mandela Effect’ – the bizarre phenomenon of shared false memories

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 11:58:32 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/new-study-seeks-to-explain-the-mandela-effect-the-bizarre-phenomenon-of-shared-false-memories-188269>

"Imagine the Monopoly Man.

Is he wearing a monocle or not?

If you pictured the character from the popular board game wearing one, you’d be
wrong. In fact, he has never worn one.

If you’re surprised by this, you’re not alone. Many people possess the same
false memory of this character. This phenomenon takes place for other
characters, logos and quotes, too. For example, Pikachu from Pokémon is often
thought to have a black tip on his tail, which he doesn’t have. And many people
are convinced that the Fruit of the Loom logo includes a cornucopia. It
doesn’t.

We call this phenomenon of shared false memories for certain cultural icons the
“visual Mandela Effect.”

People tend to be puzzled when they learn that they share the same false
memories with other people. That’s partly because they assume that what they
remember and forget ought to be subjective and based on their own personal
experiences.

However, research we have conducted shows that people tend to remember and
forget the same images as one another, regardless of the diversity of their
individual experiences. Recently, we have shown these similarities in our
memories even extend to our false memories."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

Comment via email

Home E-Mail Sponsors Index Search About Us