THE MANDELA EFFECT

INTRODUCTION:
As much as science has advanced a lot in recent decades, people still have a
lot of questions to answer. Many of them are directly related to the human brain, which
is complex and full of potential. There are also numerous studies that investigate the
capabilities that this organ has, as it could also have, and experts agree, even to this
day, that the brain continues to be a great unknown, to the point that one of the The
most integral cognitive aspects is the functioning of memory, being the process that
allows us to retain the knowledge and also the experiences that we receive from the
environment.Our brain processes and stores a large amount of information every day,
and even while we sleep. In this case, we enter the Mandela effect, since it is not
something as strange as one might think. Below I will explain how intriguing this could
be and also mention some of the most famous cases of this as well as the origin of its
name.
DEVELOPMENT:

The Mandela effect is, explained in a few words, a false collective memory. It is
an erroneous belief in the form of a vivid memory that is shared by a large group of
people even though in reality it has never happened or has not been the way it is
remembered. This discrepancy between reality and memory is a phenomenon of the
mind that occurs because short-term memories are modified by our brain, which
subjectively completes and personalizes the information we perceive.
This strange memory effect was named this way because of one of the most unusual
cases that have been associated with it. It turns out that Fiona Broome, a paranormal
investigator, had a memory that former South African president Nelson Mandela died in
prison during the 1980s. When the researcher shared the anecdote, she discovered
that she was not alone in this false belief, since many people were sure that, in fact, the
South African leader had been dead for years. What was disconcerting for these
people was learning that the historical figure had died in 2013.
Since the matter lacked a logical explanation, Fiona Broome coined the term “Mandela
effect” to refer to what she and many others had experienced. Over time, more
examples appeared that achieved greater resonance for the phenomenon.

WHAT DOES SCIENCE SAY?

The Mandela effect quickly gained a place in the archive of conspiracy theories,
especially to strengthen the arguments of parallel universes. However, many scientists
have had their attention captured by the topic.

WHY HAPPENS?
The truth is that it has not been possible to stipulate a specific cause for this
phenomenon from the point of view of brain mechanisms, and each expert has
proposed a plausible explanation applied to their field. From the point of view of
psychology, it is argued that because memory is very suggestible, some erroneous
memories may have reached your mind already modified, and may even have been
implanted externally unconsciously, taking into account that we are in constant
communication with other individuals. Quantum physics, on the other hand, proposes
that sporadic connections occur between parallel realities, thus explaining why several
people who are not related to each other can share the same erroneous memory.
5 FAMOUS EXAMPLES OF THE MANDELA EFFECT
The best way to understand a theory is to use an example. Fortunately or
unfortunately, there are countless examples of the Mandela effect that are shared
among a large part of the population. Some of them are explained below:
• The Monopoly man does not wear a monocle, although most people remember him
that way in the drawing that appears on the game box.
• Darth Vader never said the phrase "Luke, I am your father" which has become part of
popular culture. The actual line that appears in The Empire Strikes Back says, "No, I
am your father."

• The man who stood in front of some tanks during the Tiananmen protests (China,
1989), whose photo has gone around the world, was not run over by the tank but
managed to stop it. However, many people claim to remember his murder by being run
over perfectly.
• When geographically locating, the Mandela effect can also occur: New Zealand is at
the bottom right of Australia, and not at the top as is often believed.

THE REASON FOR ITS FAMOUS NAME

In 2013, when the death of Nelson Mandela due to a serious lung infection was
announced internationally, thousands of people from different parts of the world
revealed that they were convinced that Mandela had died during his stay in prison in
the 1980s.

Fiona Broome, an American blogger who investigates paranormal events, was the first
to comment and investigate this event even years before this death. In 2009 he coined
the term "the Mandela effect" through a well-known blog article in which he commented
for the first time on the popular belief that the activist was dead, when in fact he was
still alive. These observations aroused a lot of curiosity and, since then, Broome began
to collaborate with scientists who provided different theories and perspectives on the
cause of this effect on collective memory. Through these investigations they discovered
that the Mandela effect occurred with many other facts, events and situations,
converting it from an isolated case to a recognized phenomenon.

The researchers tried to find simple causes for the phenomenon, such as people not
looking directly at the detail in question when looking at the character or images on the
Internet showing the errors, but they found no match for these hypotheses. Bainbridge
and Prasad also had participants in the experiment draw the icons from memory to see
if they would spontaneously create these errors, and found that they often did. "A big
takeaway is that while the Mandela effect shows up in different types of experiments,
there is no clear explanation for it," Bainbridge said, "so future research is needed to see
what is causing this."

It's important to remember how prone we can be to inaccuracy, said Neil Dagnall, a
cognitive and parapsychological researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University in
the United Kingdom. “Very often, when we process information, we see things as we
think they are, rather than what they really are. “Attention is a very interesting
phenomenon,” said Dagnall, a reader in applied cognitive psychology. "With the
Mandela effect, people often remember things as they think they should be rather than
as they actually are, because we process things so quickly in everyday life." Dagnall
mentioned the example of the Deese, Roediger, and McDermott task, a false memory
test in which people are given lists of words to remember:

“For example, if we gave people items related to sewing (like pins, cotton, thread) when
asked to remember them, they also remember words that were not on the list, but are
associated with sewing, such as needle.” Likewise, people might add thematically
similar details to their memory of an image, he said. Ken Drinkwater, a researcher at
Manchester Metropolitan, added that the effect could be related to a condition called
false memory syndrome. “In their individual identity and in their way of seeing the
world, the people are influenced by objectively incorrect memories.

They might firmly believe in something, or firmly believe that they have had this
experience or this memory, but in reality it is a fantasy,” said Drinkwater, a senior
lecturer at the university. Some common examples of the Mandela Effect perhaps have
logical explanations, such as Mr. Monopoly wearing a monocle because it
complements his old-fashioned sartorial style (similar to Mr. Peanut, who has one) or
Pikachu having a black tip on his tail because his ears They also have black tips. But
these generalizations may not apply to other errors.

PARALLEL WORLDS?

One peculiar collective memory that demonstrates how powerful false memories can
be is that of an alleged '90s movie about a genie called "Shazaam," starring actor
David Adkins, better known as Sinbad. There is no such film, to the bewilderment of
countless people on the Internet who might have sworn otherwise. What does exist,
however, is the 1996 film "Kazaam," starring Shaquille O'Neal as the title character.
“Proponents of the Mandela effect believe it is a genuine effect. Many believe that this
is based on the theory of many worlds or the multiverse, and that things are different in
parallel realities,” Dagnall said, referring to the theory that suggests there may be other
universes (potentially an infinite number of them) beyond our own. “I also came up with
the idea of time travel, which would cause small changes in the structure of time.”

Another popular theory is that the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator at the
European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, in Switzerland, opened
a portal to a different dimension when it was activated in 2008. Clara Nellist, particle
physicist of CERN, responded to such concerns on TikTok, specifically about the
“Double Stuf” Oreo cookies that carry that name instead of “Double Filled,” saying that
“collisions of much higher energy particles occur all the time in our atmosphere. “I can
promise you that we will not change the labels on your food.”

The lack of evidence supporting these theories hasn't stopped people from being
creative with them. One TikTok account, for example, shows popular examples of the
Mandela effect through the screen of one of the first camera phones, showing the
“alternative” version because it is supposedly a technological relic from a parallel
universe. “In times of uncertainty, like the pandemic, misinformation and conspiracy
theories become more prevalent,” Drinkwater said. “People want to watch something
that gives them more meaning. "Therefore, it could be that belief in the Mandela effect
increases due to this process." A key element of the Mandela Effect is that it is not
limited to a few isolated individuals, but affects entire groups of people. This raises
fascinating questions about the nature of memory and shared perception.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT MANY PEOPLE REMEMBER THE

SAME THING IN AN WRONG WAY?

One possible explanation is cultural conditioning. Misinformation may have spread

through popular culture, media, and social media, further reinforcing the erroneous
belief in a collective. Social psychological theory suggests that people tend to adopt the
opinions and beliefs of the majority, which could explain why so many individuals
misremember the same details. The Mandela Effect raises important questions about
the reliability of memory and how human perception can be influenced by external
factors. It also highlights the importance of fact-checking and the importance of basing
our beliefs on verifiable facts.

It is also important to mention that the Mandela effect can have advantages as well as
disadvantages, such as the case in which a memory in which you take an exam is
mistakenly recorded, this memory will help you study better, among others.