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Does Pikachu have a spot on its tail? Does the Monopoly man wear a monocle? If he remembers them like this, he suffers from the Mandela effect”

2022-09-23T17:39:48.857Z


We explain how this memory failure works and what the possible causes are. By Deepasri Prasad and Wilma Bainbridge - The Conversation Think of the man from the popular board game Monopoly. Do you wear a monocle? If you imagine him with one, you are wrong. She has never worn it. If you're surprised, you're not alone. Many people share this false memory of the character. This phenomenon includes other cartoons, logos and phrases. For example, Pikachu from Pokémon is of


By Deepasri Prasad and Wilma Bainbridge -

The Conversation

Think of the man from the popular board game Monopoly.

Do you wear a monocle?

If you imagine him with one, you are wrong.

She has never worn it.

If you're surprised, you're not alone.

Many people share this false memory of the character.

This phenomenon includes other cartoons, logos and phrases.

For example, Pikachu from

Pokémon

is often thought to have a black tip on its tail.

There are those who are convinced that the logo of the textile company Fruit of the Loom includes a cornucopia...

And no.

Pikachu and the game Monopoly. STAN HONDA and Vik_Y / Getty Images

Many people are also disconcerted to learn that they share these false memories with other people.

They assume that what they remember and forget is subjective and based on their personal experiences.

But our research shows that people remember and forget the same images, regardless of their individual experiences.

And these similarities extend even to our false memories.

What is the Mandela effect?

The term was coined by self-styled paranormal investigator Fiona Broome to describe her false memory of the death of former South African President Nelson Mandela in prison in the 1980s. Learning that others shared the idea, she wrote an article on her website recounting her experience. .

The concept spread to other forums like Reddit, and more examples surfaced online, like C-3PO in

Star Wars

, who is remembered as having two gold legs instead of one gold and one silver.

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This phenomenon has even fueled conspiracy theories: false memories are so strong and specific that some people mistakenly consider them evidence of an alternate dimension.

[Why are conspiracy theories dangerous, even when few people believe them?]

The Mandela effect has been studied to understand how these conspiracy

theories spread

on the internet, but it has been little researched as a phenomenon of memory.

A solid phenomenon of false memories

To check if the visual Mandela effect exists, we carried out an experiment in which we

presented three versions of the same icon to a group of people

and asked them to choose the correct one.

One was real and two manipulated.

There were 40 icon sets, including C-3PO, the Fruit of the Loom logo, and the Monopoly logo.

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?

March 4, 202104:48

In this study, accepted for publication in the journal Psychological Sciences, we found that

people failed seven of them, choosing the correct one less than 33% of the time

In seven images, they identified the same incorrect version

.

In addition, they stated that they were very sure of their choice and familiar with these icons, despite being wrong.

Even when people saw the correct version of the icon, a few minutes later they chose the wrong one.

Deepasri Prasad and Wilma Bainbridge specialists in psychology and neuroscience

It is clear proof that the visual Mandela effect is a real memory error.

With different mental exercises we discovered that it was incredibly strong: even when people saw the correct version of the icon, minutes later they chose the wrong one.

And when they were asked to draw them, they also included the same wrong features.

What causes us to share false memories?

Visual characteristics such as color and brightness cannot explain the effect.

We analyzed the movements of the computer mouse while the participants viewed the images to see if they did not go over a certain part, such as Pikachu's tail, but even when they looked directly at the correct part of the image, they still chose the fake version afterward. .

We further concluded that, in most cases, it was unlikely that they had seen the wrong version beforehand and were remembering it instead of the real one.

C-3P0 and R2-D2. Mario Tama / Getty Images

There may not be a universal cause for this phenomenon.

Different images can cause the Mandela effect for various reasons: previous expectations, previous visual experiences, or even reasons completely different from the images. 

[“The plates do not know about calendars”: seismologist explains what is behind the earthquakes of September 19 in Mexico]

For example, we found that most people only look at C-3PO's upper body in the media.

The misremembered golden leg could be the result of them using prior knowledge – bodies are often one color – to fill in this gap.

But that we can demonstrate consistency in false memories of certain icons suggests that part of what drives them depends on our environment and is independent of our subjective experiences with the world.

[Deepasri Prasad and Wilma Bainbridge, authors of this article, are specialists in psychology and neuroscience]

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.


Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-09-23

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