What Is The Mandela Effect & Why Does It Happen? 15 Theories & Examples

Memory isn't always accurate; sometimes details are spotty, which can make recalling a name or conversation something resembling a brain teaser. Then there are the memories you've computed into truths, but they never really happened.

According to licensed professional mental health counselor, Joanne Frederick, NCC, LPC-DC, of JFL Counseling, the Mandela effect refers to a situation or event (sometimes as insignificant as the spelling of a name) that many people believe occurred, when, in fact, it did not.

It occurs when a group of people becomes immune to the truth, for no reason other than the fact that they've somehow convinced themselves of an alternative. 

Though the Mandela effect has probably been around for centuries, it wasn't until 2009 that paranormal researcher Fiona Broome put a name to it. She coined the phrase after the late South African president, whom many (Broome included) believed died in prison in the 1980s. In reality, Mandela passed away in 2013 of a respiratory infection. 

"The phrase 'Mandela effect' started at Dragon Con, America's second-largest sci-fi and fantasy gathering," Broome explains in a YouTube video on the subject. Broome was in attendance as a celebrity guest speaker, and during one of the conversations she was involved in, the event's security manager said their chat reminded him of the "people who remember Nelson Mandela dying, decades ago. That got my attention because I was someone who had one of those memories, but I'd never mentioned that memory to anyone because it seemed so weird, and I never found an explanation for it."

False memories are distorted and/or untrue recollections of an event that may contain some trace elements of fact or that turn out to be entirely fabricated. According to Frederick, the concept of false memories is "one of the several" potential explanations for the Mandela effect. 

"Although the idea of false memories makes some people uncomfortable, memory mistakes are pretty standard," Frederick tells mbg. "Your memory does not work like a camera by cataloging images, statements, and events in their purest forms. Your personal bias and emotions can influence your memories."

This false memory phenomenon was explored in a 2017 study1 performed by psychologists Enmanuelle Pardilla-Delgado, Ph.D., and Jessica D. Payne, Ph.D., at the University of Notre Dame. The researchers introduced false memories via the DRM task paradigm2 (a protocol that lists semantically related words). Interestingly, they found that the more words listed, the more likely false memories were to occur. 

"One particularly important factor to keep in mind for future experiments is that increasing the number of semantically related words in each list boosts the false memory effect, i.e., in order to increase the probability of false recall/recognition, it is paramount that experimenters present as many words as possible (for each list) during encoding," the authors concluded in their paper.

Another potential explanation for the Mandela effect is confabulation, which, according to the International Journal of Neurology and Neurotherapy, refers to the "creation of false memories in the absence of intentions of deception." In other words, it's the spreading of false information without the intention of spreading false information. Whoever passes on the false memory genuinely believes they're telling the truth.

According to Fiona Broome, paranormal explanations, like parallel universes or alternate realities, shouldn't be discounted when exploring the various reasonings why the Mandela effect occurs (though, Broome also stresses that discussions around the Mandela effect should be "light and fun," and approached with "whimsical speculation").

In her video titled "What is the Mandela effect?" Broome repeatedly points out that those experiencing the Mandela effect are experiencing memories that never occurred in "this reality," as if to insinuate that the Mandela effect occurs when reality interacts with another alternate reality or parallel universe. An explanation that, according to Frederick, originates from quantum physics, string theory, and M-theory. 

"String theory is essentially a theoretical framework that explains the very nature of reality and the entire universe in terms of tiny strings that vibrate in 10 different dimensions," Frederick explains. And though highly controversial and unproven, based on string theory alone, Frederick says, "one can assert that our universe is only one of many, potentially infinite, other universes known as the multiverse." 

The idea of past-life memories also correlates with these paranormal theories, though according to Jim Tucker, M.D., past-life memories are typically recounted by children, and are often forgotten by the age of seven. Still, there are so many questions left unanswered on the subject of consciousness and what lies beyond the physical world, that we cannot confirm nor deny these theories, no matter how out-of-the-box they sound.

How many times has your favorite celebrity "died" via fake news? Be it intentional or accidental, flawed news reporting can lead people to believe something that isn't true. This has only worsened with social media, on which anyone can have a platform and spread rumors.

Have you ever woken up from a vivid dream and felt as though the events that took place in your slumber actually happened? Or maybe you're going about your day and are overcome with a sensation that you've dreamed of the experience before? This is called déjà rêvé (not to be confused with déjà vu), in which you dream something happened before it did and only recall the memory when something in real life triggers it. 

It's interesting when one person's memories become skewed, but it's even more fascinating when a large group of people shares a misconstrued recollection of an event. 

These are called "collective false memories," and they occur because, well, humans tend to take what others say as fact. This is known as "suggestibility," and it can quickly lead to collective false memories. 

"When misinformation is introduced, it can compromise the fidelity of an existing memory, which is precisely why an attorney can object to 'leading questions' that suggest a specific answer in a court of law," Frederick tells mbg.

The truth may be entirely different from the collective memory, but if a large enough group of people recall an event or situation a certain way, they'll continue to do so—true or not.

Renowned parenting expert, licensed educational psychologist, and board-certified behavior analyst Reena B. Patel, LEP, BCBA, adds that, sometimes, humans will also fill in the gaps of memory in order to make sense of it. "We try to remember every detail that happened, and when others who may not remember [all the details either] agree with us, it becomes more set in stone," Patel tells mbg.

We may never know exactly how or why the Mandela effect occurs, but we do know it's real, and many of us have or will have experienced it at some point in our lives. But remember, all of these experiences are whimsical, spiritual, and should be approached with lightness and curiosity.