Mandela effect: What Is It, how It works, and more Health ConditionsHealth ConditionsAlzheimer's & DementiaAnxietyArthritisAsthma & AllergiesBreast CancerCancerCardiovascular HealthCOVID-19Dermatology & SkincareDiabetesEnvironment & SustainabilityExercise & FitnessEye HealthHeadache & MigraineHealth EquityHIV & AIDSHuman BiologyInflammatory Bowel DiseaseLeukemiaLGBTQIA+Men's HealthMental HealthMultiple Sclerosis (MS)NutritionParkinson's DiseasePsoriasisSexual HealthWomen's HealthDiscoverNewsLatest NewsOriginal SeriesMedical MythsHonest NutritionThrough My EyesNew Normal HealthPodcastsHow to understand chronic painWhat is behind vaccine hesitancy?The amazing story of hepatitis C, from discovery to cureNew directions in dementia researchCan psychedelics rewire a depressed, anxious brain?Why climate change matters for human healthToolsGeneral HealthDrugs A-ZHealth HubsHealth ToolsBMI Calculators and ChartsBlood Pressure Chart: Ranges and GuideBreast Cancer: Self-Examination GuideSleep CalculatorHealth ProductsAffordable Therapy OptionsBlood Pressure MonitorsDiabetic SuppliesFitness TrackersHome GymsGreen Cleaning ProductsHow to Shop for CBDQuizzesRA Myths vs FactsType 2 Diabetes: Managing Blood SugarAnkylosing Spondylitis Pain: Fact or FictionConnectAbout Medical News TodayWho We AreOur Editorial ProcessContent IntegrityConscious LanguageNewslettersSign UpFollow UsMedical News TodayHealth ConditionsDiscoverToolsConnectSubscribe What is the Mandela effect Medically reviewed by Kendra Kubala, PsyD, Psychology — By Jamie Eske — Updated on July 28, 2022The Mandela effect is a type of false memory that occurs when many different people incorrectly remember the same thing. It refers to a widespread false memory that Nelson Mandela, South African human rights activist and eventual president, died in prison in the 1980s. Memories are not always precise recordings of events. They can change with time, and a person may have different memories in different contexts. Memory is also highly suggestible, which means that other people’s opinions and memories may influence what a person remembers. Thus widespread incorrect information can subtly influence individual memories, giving rise to conspiracy theories and harmful false beliefs. Incorrect beliefs about the death of Nelson Mandela are just one example of the Mandela effect. Read on to learn more about the Mandela effect, including some examples and possible causes. Definition Share on PinterestThe Mandela effect is when a group of people misremembers a historical event or person. Writer and researcher Fiona Broome coined the term over a decade ago when she created a website detailing her recollections of former South African President Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s. Nelson Mandela did not die in prison in the 1980s. After serving 27 years in prison, Mandela became president of South Africa from 1994–1999. He died in 2013. Despite this, Broome thought she remembered international news coverage of Mandela’s death in the 1980s. She found other people who shared these false memories. Causes Memory is highly malleable. Input from other people can change memories, causing people to misremember events or remember events that never happened. Some potential causes of the Mandela effect include: False memories False memories are untrue or distorted recollections of an event. Some false memories contain elements of fact, closely resembling the actual event in question. However, others are entirely false. Memory is very suggestible. This means that information from another person, a person’s desire to believe something different, or false information online can influence memory. People can believe a wide variety of false things. For example, scientists have been able to falsely induce memories of committing a crime. In one study, people could not distinguish false from real memories. Researchers have even discovered a simple method of inducing false memories, called the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task paradigm. During the DRM task paradigm, participants read a list of related words, such as:zebramonkeywhalesnakeelephant After reading the list, researchers will ask the participants whether or not they recall a “lure word,” which is a related word that is not on the list. Usually, the participants will recognize the lure word and recall reading it, even though it was never on the list. Confabulation Confabulations are false memories a person spontaneously generates, often to compensate for holes in a person’s memory. For example, a person who does not recall what happened to Nelson Mandela might conclude that he died a long time ago, then report remembering this “fact.” The person is not lying. They truly believe the false memory. Confabulation is a common symptom of neurological conditions that affect memory, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. When a person with dementia confabulates, they are not lying or attempting to deceive. They simply do not have the necessary information or awareness to recall a specific memory or event accurately. Priming In psychology, priming describes a phenomenon in which exposure to a stimulus directly influences a person’s response to a subsequent stimulus. For example, if a person reads or hears the word “grass,” they will recognize another related word, such as “tree” or “lawnmower,” more quickly than an unrelated word. Priming uses suggestive techniques to trigger a certain response. For instance, “Did you grab the red ball from the shelf?” is much more suggestive than the phrase, “Did you take anything from the shelf?” This is because the second phrase contains a general, open-ended question, while the first describes the action of grabbing a specific object: “the” red ball. Therefore, the first phrase has a stronger influence on memory than the second. Alternate realities or parallel universes Broome describes the Mandela effect as a clear memory of an event that never occurred in this reality. Her explanation ties into several popular theories that suggest that the Mandela effect occurs when our reality interacts with other alternate realities or parallel universes. While these explanations draw upon real theories in physics, they lack scientific support. For example, some people argue that the Mandela effect provides evidence for multiple universes. Some physicists, drawing on theories such as string theory, argue that there are infinite possible universes. Scientists have not tested the claim that the Mandela effect provides evidence for multiple universes. Evidence from memory research suggests that other theories of false memory might better explain the phenomenon. While mathematical modeling supports string theory and the notion of multiple universes, both remain controversial. Internet influence The concept of the Mandela effect continues to gain popular support on blogs. Some of these blogs argue the Mandela effect is evidence of multiple universes. Others use the Mandela effect to promote false claims and spread conspiracies. The internet is a potent tool for spreading false memories and beliefs. Drawing upon the basic principles of memories, some websites may be able to convince people to believe things that never happened by using tactics such as: primingcombining false information with true information repeating a false claim so often that it begins to seem true spreading fake news stories to support a false claim Features Features of the Mandela effect can include:having distorted memories in which some aspects are partially or entirely inaccurateclearly remembering entire events that did not happenseveral unrelated people sharing similar distorted or inaccurate memories The Mandela effect occurs when a person believes that their distorted memories are, in fact, accurate recollections. They can clearly remember events that happened differently or events that never occurred at all. The Mandela effect does not involve lying or deception. Instead, it occurs when a person or group has clear but false memories. Examples This section includes a few famous examples of the Mandela effect. Luke I am your father Many people misquote James Earl Jones’s famous line from the 1980 film “Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back.” Instead of “Luke, I am your father,” Darth Vader actually says, “No, I am your father.” Berenstein Bears Many fans of the popular children’s series, “The Berenstain Bears,” report remembering the bears’ family name as “Berenstein,” after the authors. In reality, both the bears and the authors were named Berenstain. Monopoly monocle What did the Monopoly Man look like in the game Monopoly? Many people assert he had a monocle and cane. In fact, he did not have a monocle. This provides evidence for a visual Mandela effect. Play it again Sam In “Casablanca,” another Hollywood classic, people remember Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick saying, “Play it again, Sam.” Some people say they can even “hear” his voice saying those words. However, it is Ingrid Bergman’s character Elsa who says, “Play it, Sam.” Sinbad s Shazam Some people who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s report a movie called “Shazam,” in which Sinbad played a genie or other magical character fulfilling a child’s wishes. Sinbad never made such a movie. How to recognize false memories One of the challenges of false memories is that they present similarly to real memories. A person may be very confident in the memory and spontaneously generate details to support it. Without external evidence of the memory’s falseness, there may be no evidence that it is not true. A 2020 paper supports this claim, finding that people are no better than chance at detecting false memories. A person can improve their chances of detecting false memories by: consulting reliable sources such as encyclopedias, mainstream news sites, or peer-reviewed journals considering whether they may have a memory because someone else has that memory seeking independent evidence to support memories that seem suspicious or potentially harmful Summary The Mandela effect refers to widespread false memories that large numbers of people or a group of individuals believe. They may be harmless but can also support conspiracy theories or political agendas. Memory is not a perfect recording of events that happened. It can change with time, and with practice and priming. If a person’s only source of evidence that something happened is from their own memory, it is possible that it did not happen. Independent verification of memories, especially those with important social or political consequences, can slow the spread of misinformation and conspiracies. Last medically reviewed on July 28, 2022Mental HealthNeurology / NeurosciencePsychology / Psychiatry 11 sourcescollapsedMedical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We avoid using tertiary references. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.Biography of Nelson Mandela. (n.d.).https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biographyFrench, A. (2018). The Mandela effect and new memory.http://correspondencesjournal.com/ojs/ojs/index.php/home/article/view/70Greene, B. (n.d.). String theory.https://www.britannica.com/science/string-theoryHaj, M. E., et al. (2020). False memory in Alzheimer's disease.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7049840Huff, M. J., et al. (2020). Reducing false recognition in the Deese-Roediger/McDermott paradigm: Related lures reveal how distinctive encoding improves encoding and monitoring processes.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.602347/fullLaPaglia, J. A., et al. (2019). Telling a good story: The effects of memory retrieval and context processing on eyewitness suggestibility.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0212592Liv, N., et al. (2020). Deep fakes and memory malleability: False memories in the service of fake news.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21507740.2020.1740351Prasad, D., et al. (2021). The Visual Mandela Effect: Evidence for specific shared false memories in popular iconography [Abstract].https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2776847Shaw, J. (2020). Do false memories look real? Evidence that people struggle to identify rich false memories of committing crime and other emotional events.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00650/fullThe Mandela effect. (n.d.).https://mandelaeffect.comWiggins, A., et al. (2021). Confabulation.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536961FEEDBACK:Medically reviewed by Kendra Kubala, PsyD, Psychology — By Jamie Eske — Updated on July 28, 2022 Latest newsWhat sets 'SuperAgers' apart? Their unusually large neuronsOmega-3 may provide a brain boost for people in midlifeSeasonal affective disorder (SAD): How to beat it this fall and winterCDC: Monkeypox in the US 'unlikely to be eliminated in the near future'Why are more women prone to Alzheimer's? New clues arise Related CoverageHow to forget unwanted memories Scientists are uncovering new ways of getting rid of bad memories. Some drugs and psychotherapy techniques show promise, but there are ethical…READ MOREWhat is amnesia and how is it treated?Medically reviewed by Heidi Moawad, M.D. There are many reasons why a person may have amnesia, which refers to difficulty recalling prior experiences or forming new memories. It is a rare…READ MOREWhat is the hippocampus?Medically reviewed by Nancy Hammond, MD The hippocampus is a part of the brain that plays a role in memory and learning. Discover the function, anatomy, and disorders that affect the…READ MORE12 foods to boost brain functionMedically reviewed by Katherine Marengo LDN, R.D. The diet can have a significant impact on the brain's function. A brain-healthy diet, rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, can boost memory…READ MOREHow does bipolar disorder affect memory?Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, PhD, PsyD Bipolar disorder affects mood, but it can also have an impact on stress levels and thinking ability. A person may experince difficulty concentrating…READ MORE