Zhaorong Tu, Week 13: The Mandela Effect
I was never a big fan of conspiracy theories. Many of them lack concrete evidence, and the fact that they make you question your surroundings and even your own perception is quite frankly a little offputting. That’s why I was initially so surprised by how popular the Mandela Effect was. It’s based entirely on questioning people’s perceptions, with many who experience it seemingly sharing the same false memories.
The term was first coined by self-proclaimed paranoia researcher Fiona Broome in 2009. Broome realized that both she and many other people had thought that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s when he was still alive at the time (he later died in 2013). However, the phenomenon seemed to grow more and more credible as more instances of it were discovered in popular culture.
Personally speaking, I first began buying into the phenomenon when I read about the many reported instances of it in famous media. For example, in the iconic Darth Vader line, “I am your father,” from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, many report remembering the line as “Luke, I am your father.” Another well-known occurrence of the Mandela effect is in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: the “mirror mirror on the wall” dialogue from the evil queen did not actually repeat “mirror.” Instead, it began with “magic mirror on the wall.” Aside from movies, there was also the case of Curious George’s character design; many individuals recalled that he had a tail when he never did.
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Thankfully, there are rational explanations for the effect based on research into cognitive science and memory. In fact, the explanation for “false memories” even confirms The Mandela Effect in a way, by stating that they are simply a result of emotional and personal biases. There’s also the psychological phenomenon of “priming,” which refers to prior experiences altering a person’s understanding of new ones. Ultimately, The Mandela Effect may just be a consequence of the irregularities of the human mind, and maybe there is something in questioning what we think we already know.
Hi Zhaorong! I have been seeing the Mandela effect a lot on social media with pictures of famous brands. I am victim to it myself as I can't tell which picture is real, not even with your picture of Curious George at first glance. I never thought of it much as a conspiracy theory about alternate universes and different realities, but I suppose it could be thought of that way, although I do believe it is more harmless than that. I also didn't know where the name came from and while I know of Nelson Mandela, I thought it was from some other scientist also named Mandela.
ReplyDeleteThe Mandela effect has severely ruined my sense of what is real or fake; it is nearly impossible for me to differentiate between stuff now. I always knew the line to be "mirror mirror on the wall," and I always learned that "Luke" was part of that famous line. Perhaps it is a matter of our brains rearranging things based on, as you say, "emotional or personal biases." Nonetheless, it has done me no favors, as I question many more things now. Additionally, with the internet being how it is, I wouldn't trust your Curious George image, even though it is true. The lack of accountability has just destroyed my trust in the World Wide Web.
ReplyDeleteHi Zhaorong, I had heard about the Mandela effect before, but never really got the chance to explore what it is, so your blog gave me the perfect opportunity to educate myself more on this captivating and peculiar phenomena. I honestly was almost a 100% sure that the Evil Queen’s iconic line was “Mirror, mirror on the wall,” and I am still having trouble believing that the Evil Queen never said “Mirror, mirror.” It is really weird that so many people have the same false memories and it is definitely a question that deserves interest and consideration. However, I feel like the parallel universe theory is a bit far-fetched. I think this collective incorrect recolations is probably caused by the spreading of false information. For example, although the quote from the book was “magic mirror on the wall,” memes online and even the Snow White movie presented it as “Mirror, mirror on the wall.” This would have led other people to believe that the quote was “Mirror, mirror on the wall,” and the people would not remember where this misconception came from. In this case, it would only take a few people to incorrectly recollect something to create a Mandela effect. In any case, I think that the Mandela effect is definitely a phenomenon worth exploring.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my time on the internet and arguing with friends, the Mandela effect has come up time and time again. One specific argument I remember in vivid detail is an extensively drawn-out argument over a drawing of Pikachu I had made in middle school. The sketch had a black tip of Pikachu's tail, which immediately met with massive backlash with the friend I had showed. We immediately got into a massive heated debate full of insults and dramatics over being a "fake fan" and "lacking brain cells". To my dismay, I found upon research at my house that Pikachu didn't really have this pattern on his tail. While I had massive faith in my memory, the lack of substantiated evidence made me really question why and how I had developed this false memory, and occasionally leads me to double-check my facts more often.
ReplyDeleteHi Zhaorong, I definitely have gone through that conspiracy phase as well, and I was shocked when I first read about the Mandela Effect. They showed all these examples like "Looney Toones" being
ReplyDelete"Looney Tunes" and "The Berenstein Bears" actually being "The Berenstain Bears." When I tried to remember these phrases, I really couldn't recall whether they had always been like this or I had just convinced myself of a different spelling. But now as I think about the Mandela Effect more, I start to think it might be more about how when there is a certain belief among the masses, many start to convince themselves of the same belief, even if they don't necessarily agree with it. I still definitely think it's worth exploring the Mandela Effect to gain a better understanding into how the human brain works.
Hi Zhaorong! When I initially began reading your blog, I thought it was about various conspiracy theories and a blog on analyzing the truth behind each of these; however, I loved how you transitioned into questioning various perceptions that people had. The Mandela Effect strongly stands out as the core focus of your writing since overtime, this took its role as becoming one of the most trustworthy sources when it came to determining Mandela’s death. The large difference that is found between reality and perception in a parallel universe time scale has greatly sparked my interest since these topics relating to cognitive science and memory have always caught my attention. In fact, at first glance, like the others in the conducted survey, I was also fooled into thinking that Curious George has a tail on the back of him! It might just be the connection I have instanyl made with monkeys in the real world. Thank you for your blog and I look forward to reading more!
ReplyDeleteHi Zhaorong, I have heard of the mandela effect before, but I never bothered to learn about it. However, learning about the mandela effect from your blog post was so cool because I did not know that our perceptions can be so different from reality. I also used to think that curious george had a tail, and that the line went "Luke, I am your father." I think that the human brain jumps to what makes sense to them and what they want, and as a result they take that false perception to be reality. Thank your for writing this blog post because it opened my eyes to a lot things.
ReplyDeleteHi Zhaorong! The science behind the Mandela Effect is really interesting. I remember being astonished and vaguely creeped out after hearing about this effect for the first time when I was a kid. Some people would use it to speculate the existence of a "parallel universe," which come to think of it is just really silly. I feel like phrases like "Luke, I am your father" just came to be because of one person initially misquoting it and it being spread as that. It is a shortened form of the original quote that provides context for the situation, making it clear where it is from than a plain "I am your father." Priming and connections made such as monkeys tending to have tails do explain some visual instances of the Mandela Effect, while some like "Looney Tunes" vs. "Looney Toons" making sense from a grammatical perspective.
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