Shriya Week 14: False Memory

Yesterday, my friends and I had an argument. Nothing serious, of course, but, shockingly, we are yet to reach a conclusion. 

For some context, I was sitting in the backseat of a car with 2 of my friends last night. We were heading back home from dinner and deciding on a movie to rewatch at night, when we landed on a solid option, Elemental. But, listen to this, me and one of my friends vividly remember watching the movie together without the other friend, while the other friend claims that we ALL watched it together. Confusing, I know! But, the main gist of it is that we all have entirely different memories of the same event, at least one of us is wrong, and we still don’t know what actually happened!

The same night, my phone, being the snoopy eavesdropper it is, recommended me an article about this weird thing called the Mandela Effect, which is basically a name given to the phenomenon of a group of people sharing the same false memory. Thinking that it was ironic and interesting considering the experience my friends and I had just had, I went ahead and clicked on it to investigate why my friends and I were possibly having a false memory. And, as I read the article, which is focused largely on inaccurate memories of visuals and popular icons, I realized that I also harbor many of the same false memories as the author of the article, like Mr. Monopoly wearing a monocle. I was so convinced that he does, but, just one Google search later, my spirits were crushed, because he does not, in fact, wear a monocle. Honestly, I’m still in a little bit of shock.

Image Credit

Some research has attributed these false memories, in the case of visuals, to our minds creating details and bending memories to “make sense.” Disappointingly, though, the article also claims that there is much more research to be done to explain this phenomenon, so I still don’t understand why exactly my friends and I have such different memories of watching a movie together. Even so, I find it intriguing yet a little unsettling that we can collectively hold these false memories, that too with so much conviction. And what should I trust then, if my own memory can be inaccurate?

As I close out this blog, I would like to ask you all to take a moment to look through these examples of the Mandela Effect. For the record, I have found that I believe in more than half of the 55 examples of shared false memories on this website, which is honestly crazy!

Comments

  1. Brody ButlerApril 9, 2025 at 3:58 PM

    Hi Shriya! I like this topic you've chosen to write about, the Mandela Effect, because it is something I've been interested in for a while now. The fact that there is so little research being conducted with promising results to explain this phenomenon is insane to be, considering how mind-boggling this phenomenon is. I'd like to imagine it's just our collective conformity as a society to assume things were a certain way when in actuality they are another, but who knows? To be honest, it is always kind of freaky to experience the Mandela Effect first-hand, but in a way, that makes it even more exciting to explore. It's a unique phenomenon that really no one has yet understood, and I think that's very interesting. Thank you for writing about this concept in your blog, and I can't wait to read your next one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Celina MinojiApril 9, 2025 at 5:35 PM

    Hey Shriya! It's funny because I have heard so many things about the "Mandela Effect" but, despite having heard about it multiple times, I couldn't remember what it meant. I digress, but I did in fact check out the website about all the false memories and was quite surprised to find out that I did in fact fall into the traps for some of them. It's so weird to think about because I feel like even if we did distort some of these memories in some way, what are the chances that the majority of people do so as well?! It is alarming but also extremely intriguing that such a thing is possible: we can all collectively believe something to be true which is 100% false. I appreciated the anecdote as well, and I genuinely hope you solve that mystery because now I'm curious! Anyway, I enjoyed reading this blog and look forward to reading more of your work in the future!

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