Mandela Effect: Why Can't It Be Faulty Memory?

Let me start this by saying I haven't really followed any of the Mandela Effect threads. I grasp the basic premises though. That said why can't it just be caused by faulty memory? We already know human memory is inaccurate and it only degrades over time. Doesn't that fact alone kind of disprove any alternate timelines or what have you?

In psychology there is the concept of flashbulb memories. Flashbulb memories are extremely vivid memories usually tied an extremely emotional event. An example of such would be 9/11. Most people like to think they know exactly where they were when 9/11 happened and what exactly happened. For the longest time it was thought flashbulb memories were not only more vivid than normal memories but more accurate. Over the years however, research has shown that flashbulb memories are just as accurate as normal memories and degrade at the same rate. The only difference is that people are more confident in the accuracy of their flashbulb memories.

I can post a number of articles showing the inaccuracy of flashbulb memories but this one seemed to be the easiest to understand just from the abstract.

On September 12, 2001, 54 Duke students recorded their memory of first hearing about the terrorist attacks of September 11 and of a recent everyday event. They were tested again either 1, 6, or 32 weeks later. Consistency for the flashbulb and everyday memories did not differ, in both cases declining over time. However, ratings of vividness, recollection, and belief in the accuracy of memory declined only for everyday memories. Initial visceral emotion ratings correlated with later belief in accuracy, but not consistency, for flashbulb memories. Initial visceral emotion ratings predicted later posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Flashbulb memories are not special in their accuracy, as previously claimed, but only in their perceived accuracy.

Confidence, Not Consistency, Characterizes Flashbulb Memories

As can be seen from the abstract the participants' memories changed over time and degraded. No alternate timelines or Mandela Effect needed. So explain to me why the Mandela Effect can't just be faulty memories?

Because I had a NDE and I basically reawokened after my coma to a different world. I'm not sure if it's ME or what but I have old memories and new memories of the same event. I am tired of defending my position or explaining the things I've went through as people have already made up their mind either way about it. But I know my life.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

it's a theory, so it actually could be a lot of things.

More than faulty memory, it's people being easily influenced by memes and confirmation bias.

Just like most people will unconsciously fall for the new latest fads each year without even knowing why, and then will even invent reasons for their choices, most "mandela effect proofs" are actually not something they thought about themselves.

It's usually something shared by someone else, and they will unconsciously pick up that meme and make it their own.


And yet in 99% of the case there are rational explanation for why people feel like they have different memories:

- people usually remember the most common spelling of a name, not the correct one (like they will remember Townsend instead of Townshend simply because they read the first more; same with Bearenstain; the -stein suffix if a thousand times more common)
- in the case of remembering different maps, people tend to forget that there are different projections, and today what we see on google earth isn't the same as an old Mercator projection
- in the cases of deaths, people often misremember about a time when a celebrity was mentioned a lot on the news for the announcement of their death (because it's usually why we mention old celebrities in the news, when in fact it was something else).

etc...

I've so far never read about any "proof" for this supposed effect that couldn't be explained rationally.

The most funny is when people are all "but I KNOW I REMEMBER SOMETHING DIFFERENT". Yeah, well, that's exactly the point. Memory is inaccurate and people remember things wrong all the time. That you do remember something differently is just a proof that you are normal and not infallible.

To think, against all indications, that it's something else, is confirmation bias and sometimes borders on delusion.

This 'Mandela Effect' thing is and always has been utterly retarded if you ask me.

It is 100% absolute twaddle based on faulty memory. Even the name of the thing perfectly illustrates a text book example of it. Mandela's prison 'death' confused in peoples minds with the death of Rudolph Hess in Spandau prison.

Some really retarded examples around which all pretty much boil down to exactly the same explanation. Faulty memory. Human error. Nothing more. Then people notice that others minds have made exactly the same mistake and it's then: 'ooh what's going on here??' Doi.

The Berenstain Bears one is especially muppetesque. A more accurate name for this phenomenon would be 'The Dumbass Effect'

originally posted by: angus1745
This 'Mandela Effect' thing is and always has been utterly retarded if you ask me.

It is 100% absolute twaddle based on faulty memory. Even the name of the thing perfectly illustrates a text book example of it. Mandela's prison 'death' confused in peoples minds with the death of Rudolph Hess in Spandau prison.

Some really retarded examples around which all pretty much boil down to exactly the same explanation. Faulty memory. Human error. Nothing more. Then people notice that others minds have made exactly the same mistake and it's then: 'ooh what's going on here??' Doi.

The Berenstain Bears one is especially muppetesque. A more accurate name for this phenomenon would be 'The Dumbass Effect'

The fact that Mandela effect is so popular among people of the conspiracy crowd leaves me wondering whether that crowd isn't actually composed mainly of gullible dumbasses who instead of questioning and critically examining information, will simply and blindly gobble up anything that has a "conspiracy label" on it.


There's probably 1% honest and serious conspiracy searchers in the field and 99% "share if you like" mindless followers.

Ah but a faulty memory would place the user at fault.

As a wise man told me once when i was talking to myself. "Be confident, never admit defeat. You are always right."

From those words i conclude that it is not my memory at fault but the laws of entanglement.

Of course, as i have never encountered The Mandela Effect, everyone is wrong, or illegally entering my universe.

Be gone dragons

originally posted by: SpaceGoatFart
More than faulty memory, it's people being easily influenced by memes and confirmation bias.

Just like most people will unconsciously fall for the new latest fads each year without even knowing why.

I don't have a faulty memory. Nor am I influenced by memes or confirmation bias. I don't follow the latest fads.

I was following this long before it was 'popular' and before it appeared on ATS.

originally posted by: angus1745
This 'Mandela Effect' thing is and always has been utterly retarded if you ask me.

It is 100% absolute twaddle based on faulty memory. Even the name of the thing perfectly illustrates a text book example of it. Mandela's prison 'death' confused in peoples minds with the death of Rudolph Hess in Spandau prison.

Some really retarded examples around which all pretty much boil down to exactly the same explanation. Faulty memory. Human error. Nothing more. Then people notice that others minds have made exactly the same mistake and it's then: 'ooh what's going on here??' Doi.

The Berenstain Bears one is especially muppetesque. A more accurate name for this phenomenon would be 'The Dumbass Effect'

I don't call conspiracies others are interested in as 'retarded'. That is a poor way to argue. The pejorative tends to fall back on the user.

There is no way I would confuse Mandela for Hess. 'Muppetesque'? Definition please? I don't recall the muppets involving themselves in conspiracy theories.

The "Mandella Effect" is REAL and caused by something beyond human comprehension. By definition, that means it will never be solved...by humans. (Thread closed?) haha.

a reply to: SpaceGoatFart

What I noticed back in 2012 is that a lot of people don't actually believe the conspiracies they support. They may not realize they don't actually believe it but their actions show it to be the truth. I don't know if it stems from just wanting to be contrarian or a desire for the world, and by extension themselves, a little more special.

I seriously recommend going back and reading some 2012 threads. Specifically the end of the world ones. Nobody supporting these theories were actually worried that everyone they knew was going to die. Instead they seemed more concerned with trying to out argue those against them. They treated it like a game.

I have a feeling we're seeing something similar here. A faulty memory means you're no different than everyone else. Being the only one that remembers an alternate reality means you're special. Which would you rather be?

a reply to: Xcalibur254

It can be.
But it doesn't have to be.

If you'd ask me 85%faulty memory, 10% others and 5%Mandela effect.

The thing is just the more pressure you use to label them, the more they hold on to it.
I come to this conclusion, because I never experienced it, but I had faulty memories,
I know that doesn't mean it's not there, but it really could be a number of things causing this.
Different universe, but similar enough to just fall through? Different time line?
I don't think so.

a reply to: reldra

Everyone has faulty memory. The simple fact of the matter is that humans have pretty bad memory to begin with and it only gets worse over time. Study after study has shown this to be true. Even the greatest minds and memories in history have been subject to this limitation.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Much of the claims of a "Mandela Effect" can just be faulty memory. Hell, it all could, but the reality is that many, many people to just remember a different reality, they remember the exact SAME difference in the past. While that could be coincidence, I would ask you, why can't such a coincidence be possible evidence of verification?

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
I don't know if it stems from just wanting to be contrarian or a desire for the world, and by extension themselves, a little more special.

You might be unto something. It fits perfectly the current social trends and would easily explain why it was so popular to call others "sheeples"

originally posted by: reldra
I don't have a faulty memory. Nor am I influenced by memes or confirmation bias. I don't follow the latest fads.

It's by definition impossible for you to determine this on your own. You need an objective third party to do it.

Saying you don't have faulty memory or don't suffer from confirmation bias is similar to someone having hallucinations saying that what he sees is real.

It has no value outside your own subjective world.


Also everybody is to some degree subject to faulty memory, confirmation bias, and influence from others. To even deny it only shows a complete lack of critical sense on your side.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
but the reality is that many, many people to just remember a different reality, they remember the exact SAME difference in the past. While that could be coincidence, I would ask you, why can't such a coincidence be possible evidence of verification?

It's an evidence of cultural meme.

All these people only suddenly realize these different memories when someone else told them about it.

They have been influenced.

a reply to: SpaceGoatFart

And you've been there and witnessed that every time it happened?

Faulty memory or not, it is misnamed. There was a little internet chatter about this very thing ten years or so ago related to the many different 'deaths' of Arthur C. Clarke.....who seems to have died either three times or so or was thought to.

Unless, of course, no one remembers that but me. Now THAT would give me pause. lol

originally posted by: Peeple
a reply to: SpaceGoatFart

And you've been there and witnessed that every time it happened?

Have you ever found out about a different memory in yourself that wasn't already mentioned by someone else on the net, and that other people confirmed to remember the same way you do?



Also it's strange how no one ever confront my logical explanations about these memories, they prefer to ignore them, talk about confirmation bias:

originally posted by: SpaceGoatFart
And yet in 99% of the case there are rational explanation for why people feel like they have different memories:

- people usually remember the most common spelling of a name, not the correct one (like they will remember Townsend instead of Townshend simply because they read the first more; same with Bearenstain; the -stein suffix if a thousand times more common)
- in the case of remembering different maps, people tend to forget that there are different projections, and today what we see on google earth isn't the same as an old Mercator projection
- in the cases of deaths, people often misremember about a time when a celebrity was mentioned a lot on the news for the announcement of their death (because it's usually why we mention old celebrities in the news, when in fact it was something else).

etc...

I've so far never read about any "proof" for this supposed effect that couldn't be explained rationally.

I would gladly that someone debunks these simple and logical explanations.