THE MANDELA EFFECT

Uncle John could’ve sworn he wrote this article years ago.

BACKGROUND

In 2009 a writer and researcher named Fiona Broome attended DragonCon, a science-fiction and fantasy fan convention in Atlanta. She was talking with friends when somebody brought up Nelson Mandela, the South African civil rights leader who died in prison in the 1980s. Several other people in the group expressed similar feelings—the dismay they’d felt when they’d learned of Mandela’s death. Broome, however, was confused: Mandela didn’t die in his cell in the 1980s—he was released in the early 1990s and became the president of South Africa. So how could her friends have gotten it so wrong? To get answers, Broome started a website to discuss this phenomenon, which she called the “Mandela effect.” She received hundreds more accounts from people who were convinced that Mandela died in prison in the 1980s. In fact, they remembered hearing about it on the news; some even remembered seeing the funeral on TV.

Psychologists refer to this as confabulation—a fake memory that results from misinterpreted, flawed, or overlapping memories, or simply absorbed and processed misinformation. The reason for the false memories about Mandela: likely a combination of other publicly televised funerals and footage of Mandela’s release, all misremembered by people who were very young and very impressionable when the events “occurred.”

When someone realizes that they, along with thousands of others, remembered an event like this incorrectly—something for which there’s incontrovertible proof that they were wrong—it creates such a deep feeling of confusion and mental dissonance that they start to look for explanations. Some such “explanations” include conspiracy theories, cover-ups, and even “split/alternate universes.” But it’s not caused by any of those—it’s just a flaw in the human brain. Here are some other examples of the Mandela effect.

Mandela Effect: In 2016 hundreds of people on the internet claimed to have remembered watching a family movie in the mid-1990s called Shazam. A comedy adventure about a sassy genie, the film starred stand-up comedian Sinbad as the title character. One problem: This movie doesn’t exist. There are no tapes, posters, or records of it ever being released or airing on TV.

Reality: There was a widely released movie about an African American genie that hit movie theaters in 1996, but it wasn’t Shazam starring Sinbad—it was the similarly titled Kazaam starring professional basketball player Shaquille O’Neal. When a reporter asked about the Shazam/Kazaam phenomenon in 2016, Sinbad quipped, “It was Shaq, but we all [meaning all African Americans] look alike.”

First snack advertised on TV: Lay’s potato chips.

Mandela Effect: For more than 30 years, kids have grown up with the Berenstein Bears; the book series has provided important life lessons via stories about a family of bears. Oh, except they aren’t called the Berenstein Bears—they’re the Berenstain Bears, after authors Stan and Jan Berenstain. When millions of millennials realized they’d gotten that vowel wrong for their entire lives, it became an internet phenomenon. Some people weren’t even able to admit (on the internet) that their brains had remembered the name wrong, insisting that they actually were the Berenstein Bears back in the 1970s or ’80s and that the world split into an alternate universe where it’s spelled differently. Some even provided proof in the form of Berenstain Bears merchandise, such as stuffed animals, labeled “Berenstein.” (There you go! Artifacts from the other universe!)

Reality: So many people’s brains remembered it as “Berenstein” and not “Berenstain” because names that end in “stein” are much more common than ones that end in “stain,” and memories are distorted by “filling in the blanks” or associations. (As for those stuffed animals, apparently toy manufacturers can suffer from confabulation, too.)

More examples of the Mandela Effect in action

•Budweiser’s signature low-calorie beer isn’t Bud Lite, as many people think. It’s actually Bud Light. Those who think otherwise are conflating it with its competitor, Miller Lite.

•Despite you being in the theater in 1980 watching The Empire Strikes Back and hearing Darth Vader say, “Luke, I am your father,” the character didn’t actually say that. He says, “No! I am your father.”

•Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture The Thinker doesn’t rest his head on his fist. His head sets on limp fingers turned inward.

•Those old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons were presented under the “Looney Tunes” banner, not Looney Toons. The use of “toons” as a short version of “cartoons” was popularized by the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Warner Bros. started calling its cartoons Looney Tunes (and Merrie Melodies) in the 1930s. Reason: the series was designed to compete with cartoons from Disney called Silly Symphonies.

A third of Americans are a different religion now than when they were kids.