Mandela Effect Quiz

The Mandela Effect was named after Nelson Mandela, a monumental political figure who, for some reason, tons of people remember having died in prison in the ‘80s. Except, he didn’t. He lived until 2013!

We’ve all been there, staring at something we thought was one way, but the evidence right before our eyes says otherwise. Did Shaggy from Scooby-Doo always have an Adam’s apple? Does the Target logo have a red center, or a white one? Ask people on the street, and there probably won’t be a consensus. But… why?

In short, nobody really knows exactly why the Mandela Effect happens, but it’s probably a whole lot of different reasons, sometimes all at the same time. Here’s what scientists think might be happening:

Someone else’s memory influenced yours.
Sometimes, pop culture is just one big game of telephone. One person misremembers something, then tells other people how they remember it. Suddenly, through the power of suggestion, those other people’s memories change and warp to accept this new version of things, and they go and tell everyone else, and suddenly nobody can agree on whether or not it’s always been “Kit Kat” or if there was a hyphen in there at some point.

Your own memory just formed wrong.
The brain is a funny, fickle thing, and it’s not always 100% accurate. Even in the moments immediately after a new memory is formed, that memory is shifting and changing while your brain locks it into storage—and that shifting happens pretty much all the time. It’s the reason why you and your friend can share the same experience, but have different opinions on whether you were wearing a red shirt that day, or a blue tank top.

Your brain is trying to correct the record.
This is another common possibility. Sometimes, the truth just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Why would it be spelled “Febreze” when “Febreeze” just makes more sense? Why wouldn’t Curious George have a tail? Of course, Uncle Sam’s hat has stripes, right? Like the American flag! Well, that’s not right, but if you ask us, it should be! And your brain might think so, too, so it tells you something other than the truth, because honestly, the truth ain’t always the way it should be.

It’s probably not alternate realities. This is a common theory—that whenever you remember something wrong, it’s an alternate reality bleeding into this one. Maybe, but probably not. Given that we still don’t know all that much about how the brain works, it’s much more likely that it’s just our brains acting up, not the fabric of reality warping and tearing every time we think it’s “Berenstein Bears” rather than “Berenstain Bears.” But who knows?