Have you ever thought you remembered something clearly, only to find out it never happened that way? This strange phenomenon is known as the Mandela Effect. Let’s explore some fascinating examples and learn why our brains might play these tricks on us.
Picture the Monopoly Man, also known as Mr. Monopoly or Rich Uncle Pennybags. Does he have a monocle? If you think he does, you’re experiencing the Mandela Effect! In reality, the Monopoly Man has never worn a monocle. Many people confuse him with Mr. Peanut, a mascot who does wear a monocle, a top hat, and carries a cane.
The term “Mandela Effect” was coined by Fiona Broome, a blogger and paranormal researcher. It refers to the false memory many people have of Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s. In truth, Mandela passed away in 2013 as a free man. This shared false memory led to the discovery of other similar instances.
Do you remember a peanut butter brand called “Jiffy”? If so, you’re not alone, but the brand is actually called Jif. This mix-up likely happens because Jif and Skippy, another peanut butter brand, are often seen together in stores, leading to the creation of the non-existent “Jiffy.”
Try to recall Hannibal Lecter’s famous line from “The Silence of the Lambs.” Did you think it was “Hello, Clarice”? Actually, he says “Good morning.” Similarly, many people misremember Darth Vader’s line from “The Empire Strikes Back” as “Luke, I am your father,” when he actually says, “No, I am your father.”
Do you remember the Berenstain Bears as the “Berenstein Bears”? Many people do, but the correct spelling has always been Berenstain. This small difference has caused a lot of confusion and debate among fans of the beloved children’s books.
Think of the Fruit of the Loom logo. Does it include a cornucopia? If you think it does, you’re mistaken. The logo has always been a simple pile of fruit without a cornucopia. Our brains might add the cornucopia because it’s a common way to display fruit.
Remember the famous scene from “Risky Business” where Tom Cruise dances in his underwear? Many people recall him wearing sunglasses, but he doesn’t wear them in that scene. He does wear sunglasses in other parts of the movie, which might explain the mix-up.
Some people believe the Mona Lisa is frowning or not smiling at all. However, she is indeed smirking in the famous painting. Our perception of her smile can change based on where we focus our eyes, leading to different interpretations of her expression.
Many people remember a 1990s movie called “Shazaam” starring Sinbad as a genie. This movie never existed. People likely confuse it with “Kazam,” a film featuring Shaquille O’Neal as a genie. Sinbad’s other movies and the comic book character Shazam might also contribute to this false memory.
According to psychologists, our brains reconstruct memories by piecing together bits of information. This process can lead to false memories, but it’s not necessarily a flaw. It helps us imagine possible futures and adapt to new situations, which is crucial for survival.
If you’ve experienced the Mandela Effect or know of other examples, feel free to share them. Keep exploring and questioning the world around you, and remember to stay curious!
Start your own Mandela Effect journal. Each day, write down any memories you have that might be examples of the Mandela Effect. Compare them with your classmates to see if they share the same memories. Discuss why you think these false memories occur and what might influence them.
Draw or create a digital image of the Monopoly Man from memory. Then, compare your drawing with the actual image of the Monopoly Man. Discuss with your classmates why you might have remembered certain details incorrectly, such as the monocle.
Organize a quiz where you and your classmates guess the correct movie quotes from famous films. Use examples like “The Silence of the Lambs” and “The Empire Strikes Back.” Discuss why certain incorrect quotes become more popular than the actual lines.
Create a memory game using logos from different brands, including the Fruit of the Loom logo. Try to remember and draw the logos from memory, then compare them with the actual logos. Discuss why certain elements, like the cornucopia, are falsely remembered.
Research and present on how the brain reconstructs memories. Work in groups to create a presentation explaining why false memories occur and how they can affect our perception of reality. Share your findings with the class and discuss how understanding this process can help us in everyday life.
Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Let’s do a little experiment. Picture the Monopoly Man in your head right now, who, by the way, goes by Mr. Monopoly. Incidentally, he is actually named Rich Uncle Pennybags. What kind of middle name is “Uncle”? Besides the point, what does Mr. Monopoly look like? Maybe something like this. Well, if this is the Mr. Monopoly you are picturing, sorry to say, you have fallen victim to the Mandela Effect, and you’re not alone. The Monopoly mascot has never, not once, been featured with a monocle. It’s a fairly simple mistake to make, but how is it possible that so many people have experienced this very specific memory mix-up?
According to Associate Professor of Cognitive Psychology Dr. Gene Brewer, it’s a matter of memory reconstruction. As Brewer told Mental Floss in 2019, when you recall an event, you use memories around it, taking elements or pieces of other events and fitting them where they make sense. For Mr. Monopoly, it’s believed that many people are conflating his appearance with that of Mr. Peanut, another prevalent mascot from around the same time period who dons a top hat, a cane, and a monocle.
Hi, I’m Justin Dodd, and welcome to a special bonus episode of The List Show from my living room. Let’s see what other memories we can rewrite.
So where does the name “Mandela Effect” come from? A little over a decade ago, blogger and paranormal researcher Fiona Broome coined the term in reference to one false shared memory in particular: the death of Nelson Mandela. Before you start to question your sanity, yes, the famous anti-apartheid leader did pass away—that part is true. But the how and the when is apparently not something we all agree on. It turns out that many people have a memory of him dying while imprisoned sometime in the 1980s. This is odd because Nelson Mandela died in 2013 as a free man. In response to this bizarre, apparently widespread phenomenon, a whole slew of other instances of the Mandela Effect were revealed.
How about the famous peanut butter brand Jif? A classic you can probably still see in grocery stores today. Picture that famous label complete with the “y” at the end. Well, unfortunately, there is no “Jiffy.” There is Jif, which is what you’re probably thinking of. But why do so many of us think it’s called “Jiffy”? Dr. Brewer once again points to confused memory reconstruction. Skippy peanut butter is probably directly adjacent to Jif when you’re reaching for it at the store, and then Jif and Skippy somehow become “Jiffy.” This phenomenon is not unique to peanut butter brands; it’s even been observed in experimental settings. According to Brewer, in studies when you show participants word pairs and ask them to remember “blackmail” and “jailbird,” half of them will later say they remember learning the word “blackbird.”
Let’s do another experiment right now. Do your best impression of Hannibal Lecter from “The Silence of the Lambs.” Go ahead! If you have a cat or a dog, feel free to deliver it to them; they can be your Jodie Foster. Okay, very creepy! Good job, everybody! If you said, “Hello, Clarice,” guess what? You just got Mandela’d. This is probably the most quoted line from that film, although Buffalo Bill’s lotion line might be a close second. But Anthony Hopkins never says these words in “The Silence of the Lambs.” In the scene you’re probably remembering where he and Jodie Foster’s character first meet, Hannibal says, “Good morning.” It’s not even close, and yet many people can hear the terrifying Hannibal Lecter saying it in a very specific melodic tone in their heads.
This is not far from the Darth Vader Mandela Effect, which involves one of the most famous movie quotes of all time. If your memory of the big reveal in “The Empire Strikes Back” involves Darth Vader saying the words, “Luke, I am your father,” you should probably go back and watch that scene again.
If you were a child at all during the 20th century, you probably remember the Berenstain Bears, a lovely series of books about a family of bears doing bear stuff. There are literally hundreds of books, hundreds of covers that all feature the name Berenstain—or did they? The name is actually Berenstain Bears, not “steen,” not “stein,” but “stain.” A one-letter difference, sure, but one that people have had a very hard time accepting. Of all the instances of the Mandela Effect we’ve looked into, this is one of the most disputed ones, with people truly believing that they used to be called Berenstein.
Which one of these is the real Fruit of the Loom logo: this one or this one? Despite what you might remember, there’s never been a cornucopia in their branding. It’s always a loose pile of fruit, which personally would not have been my top choice for a brand that sells boxer briefs. And yet many people picture something resembling this image. This is potentially due to your brain trying to make sense of a memory. You know that there’s a pile of fruit involved, and then you think, “How is fruit often portrayed?” Maybe a cornucopia.
“Risky Business” is not regarded as one of the most impactful films of all time. In fact, I don’t remember anyone talking about any scene from that movie except for one in particular: Tom Cruise slides into the room wearing nothing but shades, an unbuttoned shirt, underwear, and some socks. He proceeds to lip-sync to old-time rock and roll while dancing around the room, and cinema history is made. I’ve seen countless people dress up as Tom Cruise’s character from this scene for Halloween, college parties, you name it—it’s always the same outfit. But everyone gets it wrong: Tom Cruise is not wearing sunglasses in that scene.
Where does this prevalent mismemory come from? Well, Tom Cruise does wear iconic Ray-Ban sunglasses in other scenes, and he’s featured wearing them in some promotional material for the film. But in that scene, his eyes are naked. Dr. Brewer attributes this to the sheer amount of information in the film. Your brain can’t memorize the whole thing, and as he says, when you go back to recreate it, you’ll get interference from other things that happened in the movie.
We’ve spent a lot of this episode discussing modern instances of the Mandela Effect—modern films, mascots, quotes. This makes sense because any collective error would probably be corrected over time. But for something as classic as, say, the Mona Lisa, right? Well, guess again. One prevalent example of the Mandela Effect is apparently the presence or lack thereof of Mona Lisa’s smile. Many people claim that Mona Lisa is frowning or, at the very least, not sporting a smile of any kind. The fact that she is undoubtedly smirking in the famous portrait comes as quite a shock to those who misremember. While I scoured the internet for team frowners, I even saw some believers claim that the images of Mona Lisa available on the internet have all been photoshopped, giving her this fake modern smile. This, they claim, is the true evidence of multiple realities.
Dr. Margaret Livingstone, a Harvard neuroscientist, points to another explanation: our perception of Mona Lisa’s smile changes based on where our eyes focus. Long story short, our peripheral vision is pretty bad at deciphering fine details. So if you’re focusing on her mouth, or her eyes, or her forehead, you will interpret her mood in three different ways. Luis Martinez-Otero, a researcher at the Institute of Neuroscience, puts it like this: different cells in the retina transmit different categories of information or channels to the brain. Sometimes one channel wins over the other, and you see the smile; sometimes others take over, and you don’t see the smile.
And finally, one of the most bizarre examples of the Mandela Effect: an entire feature film that people remember fondly despite the fact that it never existed. I am, of course, talking about “Shazaam,” a film from the ’90s starring comedian Sinbad as a genie. While this might sound like an impossibly specific movie for multiple people to fabricate, there is an obvious jumping-off point. There was a film in 1996 called “Kazam,” starring Shaquille O’Neal as a genie, which is obviously what people are remembering. But how is it that so many people remember it specifically being another actor with a different title? Some sources point to the fact that Sinbad had a couple of successful comedies in the ’90s around the time of “Kazam’s” release. More specifically, on the VHS copy of Sinbad’s film “First Kid,” there is a trailer for “Kazam.” Combine that with the existence of a comic book superhero named Shazam and the fact that Sinbad looks like a man who knows his way around a pair of genie pants, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for misapprehension. This bizarre film conflation is so prevalent that even Dr. Brewer, our resident Mandela Effect explainer, admitted to remembering this fictional film.
Should these processes that lead to false memories be considered flaws? Not exactly. Current theories in psychology are exploring the idea that our ability to cull details from past experiences to create theoretical concepts is actually part of a survival mechanism. Brewer told us that taking episodes from our past allows us to construct possible futures and anticipate those events, making us adaptive to new environments—like living in a world without Jiffy peanut butter.
If you’ve ever experienced the Mandela Effect, or if there’s one we did not mention, let us know in the comments. Make sure to subscribe to Mental Floss so you can catch more videos just like this every week. Thanks for watching!
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This version removes any informal language, potential inaccuracies, and maintains a more neutral tone while preserving the original content’s essence.
Mandela Effect – A psychological phenomenon where a large group of people remember something differently than how it occurred. – Many people experienced the Mandela Effect when they remembered Nelson Mandela passing away in the 1980s, even though he actually died in 2013.
Memory – The mental process of storing and recalling information from the past. – Our memory helps us remember important facts for exams and recall happy moments from our childhood.
Confusion – A state of being unclear or uncertain about something. – The new math concept caused confusion among the students until the teacher explained it more clearly.
Perception – The way we interpret and understand sensory information from the world around us. – Our perception of colors can be influenced by the lighting in a room.
Psychology – The scientific study of the mind and behavior. – In psychology class, we learned about how emotions can affect decision-making.
False – Not true or correct; based on incorrect information or beliefs. – The rumor about the school closing early was false, and classes continued as usual.
Brand – A type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name. – Many people prefer one brand of sneakers over another because of its reputation for quality.
Quotes – Words or phrases taken from a speech or text, often used to support an argument or idea. – The teacher asked us to find quotes from the book to support our essays.
Interpretation – The act of explaining or understanding the meaning of something. – Each student had a different interpretation of the poem, which led to an interesting class discussion.
Phenomenon – An observable event or situation, especially one that is unusual or difficult to understand. – The northern lights are a natural phenomenon that attracts many tourists to see their beauty.
