Do you remember when the Monopoly Man had a monocle? Or when Darth Vader said “Luke, I am your father?”? Well actually, neither of these happened. Not to worry though, many people remember these things even though they never were a reality. These are two very common examples of the Mandela Effect, and it is actually more common than you may think.
The Mandela Effect is a psychological phenomena where a large group of people misremember a large group of people misremembers a specific detail or event. This can occur from instances of conformity where a person agrees with a larger group’s opinion in order to fit in. After long periods of time people may experience source memory eros where they forget the true origin of their memories and think they always believed the opinions of the group all along.
Learning that your memories may not be true can be a scary thought, but not to worry, there are steps you can take in order to protect yourself against the Mandela Effect. First, always make sure to fact check information you find online or from other people. This ensures that you are only taking in factual information which can help protect against misinformation effects. It is also important to analyze your memories and thoughts to make sure you aren’t conforming to other people’s ideas. The Mandela Effect can happen to anyone, so make sure you are protecting your memories.
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