Lost in Blurred Lines

Lines between imagination and reality: What happens when your mind is deceived by fiction? Distortion of thoughts and altered reality—“Mirror, mirror on the wall” or “Magic mirror on the wall”? Because, between reality and memory, lies the mystery of the Mandela Effect.

A psychological phenomenon in which a large group of people shares the same false belief and memory about an event or a fact. It all started when individuals believed Nelson Mandela died in the 1980s, though he died in 2013, and this fact piqued Fiona Broome’s interest, and she came up with the idea of “Mandela Effect”. This phenomenon indicates collective memory, and cognitive illusion—psychologists explained that memories can change over time.

On the other hand, based on Simply Psychology—a 2020 memory study, 76% of the adult mind made at least 1 error. Children, teenagers, and adults commonly experience this phenomenon. Social media platforms also contribute to the Mandela Effect because of spreading misinformation, and also exposing information repeatedly may cause familiarity, and hold a significant part in making people assume the incorrect event.

Some memories are born from truth, and some are born from beliefs—according to the American Psychological Association (APA), memories are reconstructive, and it explains why the brain rebuilds memories instead of playing flashbacks exactly and accurately. Nonetheless, in some experiments, an estimated 20-30% of individuals developed false flashbacks after being exposed to misleading information.

For example, Pikachu’s tail; some say Pikachu’s tail ends with a black tip, yet it was only yellow. KitKat or Kit-Kat? This classic chocolate brand never had a hyphen in between, KitKat. The classic  “Mirror, mirror on the wall” was never correct; it was always “Magic mirror on the wall”.

Mandela effect shows the illusion of certainty; sometimes, what we believe only wears fiction and escapes reality because what we remember was not always real in all ways.