Some would suggest this is evidence of us living in a parallel universe.  As Douglas Mcpherson explains on The Telegraph, they believe these memories aren’t false, but from an alternate reality we once lived in. This is something referred to as the “Mandela Effect,” referencing the many people who misremember Nelson Mandela dying in a prison in the 1980’s. Yet, as Faith Karimi reports on CNN, he didn’t die until 2013. One believer, Fiona Broome, writes about how she came to this conclusion on the first post of her website: “People have told me about a variety of odd conflicts between their vivid memories and the world they’re currently living in.” She later explains the purpose of the site is to explain possible reasons for this: “This website — and my upcoming book — explore the possibilities of parallel realities, quantum science, real-life ‘Sliders’ experiences, and alternate history.” Another seeming believer, Liz Briody, writes about this idea on The Odyssey: “As a result, we have been ‘sliding’ from dimension to dimension, and our past memories have been affected.” She also explains that some apply to her: “I firmly believe that this show/book series was called ‘The Berenstein Bears’ at one point.” There are several examples like this where widespread misremembered events are explained by parallel universes. However, this doesn’t take into account research into the brain. From memories of small details or things that never happened, our faulty memory is the real reason for the Mandela Effect.

Memories can be changed simply by thinking about them. As Marla Paul states in “Your Memory is like the Telephone Game” through Northwestern University, “Every time you remember an event from the past, your brain networks change in ways that can alter the later recall of the event.” Paul explains that every time you remember something, you don’t perfectly remember the event. Instead, you think about it as you did the last time. Paul cites Donna Bridge, the lead author of a paper in the Journal of Neuroscience on this Northwestern study: “If you remember something in the context of a new environment and time, or if you are even in a different mood, your memories might integrate the new information.” Essentially, the more you think about something, the more it can be distorted. It can possibly even be enough to the point of “being totally false with each retrieval,” as Bridge, a “postdoctoral fellow at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine,” noted. The ease at which memory can change helps explain how many Mandela Effect examples may have actually developed.

Memory can also be distorted through misattribution. As psychologist Dr. Jeremy Dean explains in the article “How Memories are Distorted and Invented: Misattribution,” on his site Psyblog, there are many ways that people can misattribute something. For example, people can mistake where they received information from. Someone may say “they read something in a newspaper, when actually a friend told them or they saw it in an advert.” Dean then writes about a supporting study where people would receive information from an experimenter. Later, when asked, they would often believe they found it in a newspaper. Misattribution can also be more extreme, like misremembering where a face came from. As Dean writes, there have been studies showing how separate events and faces can mix together in the mind. The way the memory can take things way out of context also shows how the Mandela Effect can be explained by the mind.

Memories can also be altered through suggestibility. If you are told a fake, yet detailed account of you, you could be convinced it’s real. Dean writes about this in another article on Psyblog titled “Implanting False Memories: Lost in the Mall & Paul Ingram,” in which he mentions a supporting study from The University of California. In it, 24 participants read about 4 memories written by their relatives, in which one was false. The same memory about being lost in a shopping mall was given to each person. Their family members “provided details of a specific shopping mall it could have been along with other details to make the fake story plausible.” Then they wrote more information about which memories they recalled. Soon after, they were interviewed and asked to explain as much as they remembered about them. A week later they did the same, followed by revealing that there was a false memory. They then asked which one they thought it was. Only 5 out of 24 guessed a different memory than the one about the shopping mall was false. Yet, as Dean explains, “considering the very low level of suggestion or coercion involved in the interviews, it does at least show the possibility of implanting false memories.” The strong effect suggestibility has on the mind shows the true reason why made up memories are recalled by many people.

One common event pointed to about the Mandela Effect is the phrase “Mirror, mirror on the wall,” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The actual quote was “Magic mirror on the wall,” which Ashley Mccabe reports in an article from The Odyssey. This is used by many as evidence of the Mandela Effect, as many people misremembered this detail. However, this can be written off when realizing that the original story from the Brothers Grimm did say “Mirror, mirror on the wall.” It was only changed for the movie. The original phrase was likely already well known at this point, so it was likely the only one people remembered. This would then lead them to misattribute the phrase as also being in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Many posts mislead you by first showing an altered photo depicting their memory of the logo.[/perfectpullquote]

There are also many examples of misremembered brand logos used as evidence of the Mandela Effect. For example, in the Telegraph article mentioned earlier, “Are you living in an alternate reality? Welcome to the wacky world of the ‘Mandela Effect,'” an interesting detail about the Ford logo is brought up.

There’s actually a little swirl in the “F.” However, they go on to explain how the “Misinformation Effect,” which involves suggestibility, makes you likely to believe an event when you don’t have a clear memory of it. Also, as Mcpherson explains, many posts mislead you by first showing an altered photo depicting their memory of the logo. Then they essentially tell you it is the way most people recall it, making you more likely to believe it’s true. This also disproves the same claims about many other logos, and further shows the strength of suggestibility.

There are also many who remember things that never even happened. One of the most famous is Nelson Mandela’s misremembered death in prison in the 1980’s, when he really died in 2013. Here, Broome explains that many share this incorrect memory, including her. This is where the Mandela Effect came from and is stronger than many previous examples. She later realized she was wrong, however, and explains, “My reaction was sensible, ‘Oh, I must have misunderstood something on the news.'” This led her to find many people who shared this same memory. This seems to give credit to the Mandela Effect and its theorized explanation, but it doesn’t take into account how memory works. Considering how memories can be changed and mixed with others, it’s likely this led to some people remembering Mandela dying in the 1980’s. It could also have been as simple as what Broome originally thought. When considering how memories can be influenced by others with the Misinformation Effect, this idea could’ve spread to many people. Once again, our faulty memory is much more likely to blame on the Mandela Effect.

Another imagined event mentioned in Broome’s article is that of Billy Graham’s funeral on television, even though he was still alive*. This could first be explained by Broome herself, who writes how some have speculated that “people are confusing that with Mr. Graham’s retirement, or perhaps the televised funeral of Mr. Graham’s wife.” However, she then writes how there are people who very strongly remember it being Billy Graham’s funeral.  This could again be explained by confabulation, as Caitlin Aamodt explains in more detail in the article “Shared False Memories: What’s Behind the ‘Mandela Effect’?” from The Wire. Aamodt explains how confabulation comes from “missing memory gaps” that are filled with fake details that strengthen the memory. In this case, the original memory is fake, but explained from similar events that could’ve been mixed up in the mind.

One of the strangest made up memories is of a 1990’s movie called Shazaam. Aamodt writes about this throughout the Wire article. She explains that those who remembered the movie recalled Sinbad starring as a genie. There was an actual movie in 1996 called Kazaam, which starred Shaquille O’Neal (who was also a genie), while many remember Shazaam as a rip off of it. Aamodt then writes how several events around the actual movie’s release could’ve helped create this memory. For example, 90’s films would often have a “twin” movie that was very similar. Sinbad was also in a 1995 movie for which there was a poster showing “his head coming out of a mailbox.” This could’ve been misconstrued in the brain over time as being a genie coming out of a lamp. Sinbad also has some characteristics resembling a stereotypical genie, even having dressed up as one for a movie marathon.

While this explains how a general memory of this movie could’ve occurred, there’s more behind a detailed account of the movie posted on Reddit. Confabulation is cited by Aamodt for this. This concept explains how his fake memory may have been reinforced in the brain as it created false details. Finally, suggestibility would allow for this otherwise uncommon memory to spread out on the internet. This would especially work as people used convincing language to prove to people there was a movie called Shazaam from the 90’s.

Misremembered events and memories of things that never happened are simply the results of our faulty memory. They are not proof that we are living in a parallel universe. The many ways our memory is able to change reveal that our minds are weaker than we think. It shows how misremembered logos and spellings can be blamed on the brain instead of alternate realities. Even multiple accounts of non-existent events can be explained when understanding how our memories can be tampered with, especially by other people. While ideas like the Mandela Effect may be interesting to ponder over, trying to conclude that it’s proof of something convoluted before looking to more logical solutions will almost always lead nowhere.

Featured image from Wikimedia Commons.