The Mandela effect refers to the experience of a false memory that is shared by many people.
The Psychology Behind the Mandela Effect
Why would the same specific false memory exist among many people? Researchers cannot fully explain the reason, but several concepts about memory explain parts of the effect.
Memory is malleable, and false memories —memories that seem true and clear in your mind but are somewhat or entirely mistaken—are quite common. Eyewitness testimony, for example, has been unreliable in the courtroom. Memories of the past can be warped by the suggestions of others and incorrectly reconstructed in our minds.
Schema theory may help explain the Mandela effect. According to this theory, our brains encode memories in part through expectations of how things ought to be. We remember the gist of what happened and our minds fill in the details accordingly. Curious George is a monkey and monkeys have tails. Therefore, we remember Curious George with a tail.
Time also plays tricks on memory. Many popular examples of the Mandela effect come from childhood , such as the misperception that there’s a peanut butter brand called Jiffy—it’s Jif—or that the cereal Froot Loops is spelled Fruit Loops.
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