The Mandela Effect - Truth or a hoax?
If someone asked you when and where did Nelson Mandela die what would your answer be? For a lot of people they would say that he died in prison in the 1980s. In fact, he didn't! And THIS is what this edition of Lightbulb Moments is about...
Read on, friends.
So the Mandela Effect is the notion that a large proportion of the population can recount the same memory of something happening in the past - but that memory is completely inaccurate. It is essentially the mis-remembering of facts but more than that it is the creation of a new "fact". It is called the Mandela Effect after a researcher, Fiona Broome, misremembered when Nelson Mandela died (it turns out a lot of people think as Fiona did that he died after imprisonment and in jail but he actually didn't die until 2013). What is interesting about The Mandela Effect is that people vehemently argue that they REMEMBER the story about him dying in the 1980s, even going as far as to say they remember the televised news report of his funeral.
Sorry if you're one of these peeps... it didn't happen that way.
Now let's look at some more lighthearted examples of The Mandela Effect.
In the Wizard of Oz... What does Dorothy say to Toto when they land in Oz?
Shout it loud from the back!
If, in fact, you were shouting "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" you'd be wrong, along with thousands of others! The line is similar but is actually "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore". Now OK, the two lines aren't HUGELY different BUT think about how SO MANY people can have the same wrong remembrance of the line. That's the weird thing for me about the Mandela Effect.
Now, I have to admit, when I first started to read about the Mandela Effect I had serious reservations.
Surely it's just a sign of the times?
Maybe the examples being given aren't completely accurate (like the colour of C3PO, which is used as a Mandela Effect example but isn't accurate - I'll explain this further down).
Is the explanation that as we move through time our language changes and these mis-rememberings represent that?
Maybe we're just getting old and the things that we thought we knew we are actually us creating false memories?
Anyway, whatever the reason - people believe in the Mandela Effect! If you want to see what Forbes says about it, here's a link.
What does Forbes say about the Mandela Effect?
When I look at the language examples of the Mandela Effect, I struggle to believe they are deserving of their own "effect" terminology.
For example...
Freddy Mercury never sang "of the world..." in the recording of We Are the Champions BUT he did sing it in a concert.
The Star Wars quote "Luke, I am your father." is actually "No, I am your father." (this one is an interesting one as 67% of people polled thought it was the first line).
Snow White never said "Mirror, mirror, on the wall...", instead what she actually said was "Magic mirror on the wall...".
Aren't these all just examples of someone mis-hearing? But then if they are, how can SO MANY people mishear and misremember the SAME wrong thing?
As you can see... I'm all tied up in knots about this one!
Why am I writing about the Mandela Effect at all?
Well because it got me thinking about organisations, and about how if we can misremember things that aren't important to us can we also misremember events that happen within our organisation? Especially if some time has passed?! With the Mandela Effect people have complete conviction that what they are remembering is an accurate representation of the event they are talking about. They have emotion attached to it. And we see this in our organisations when we have multiple versions of the same story and whilst it isn't a collective misremembering of an event it's important to make a mental note that it does happen. If you're a leader or manager who is responsible for employees, keep this in the back of your mind next time someone comes and tells you an account of an event. Could they be misremembering the situation? Could they be elaborating? Could they be adding a tail to Curious George? Might they be adding or removing content/context? Our brains are such clever things.
Now for those of you holding out for the C3PO gossip.
There's a suggestion of a Mandela Effect example when you ask someone to describe C3PO and most people say he is all gold. I don't think that this is a good example because in fact in the earlier Star Wars episodes the lower half of his (it feels weird to gender a machine) leg is silver. So people could just be citing an earlier version of C3PO. I'm sorry internet, not a Mandela Effect example!
And finally... Which Pikachu is the correct one? I'll leave this one as a mystery... ;)
I'd love to read your thoughts on this one, because I'm really not convinced that it's a real thing, and yet at the same time the theory that when we misremember it is actually a flash from an alternate universe-self is oddly appealing.
Leave me comments!
For now,
Toodles x
