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The Mandela Effect: The Accuracy Of The Brain

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An increasingly conspicuous phenomenon is the Mandela Effect. It relates directly to confabulation, which is defined as a disturbance in memory, without the consciences’ intention to deceive. This means that someone can remember something to be a certain way and be very intent in it’s truth, but in reality the memory is incorrect. For example, the majority of society remembers the popular children book series being titled ‘Berenstein Bears’. If you look back at the books, they are actually titled ‘Berenstain Bears’, which many people don’t recall it ever being called. While our brains do make errors, the Mandela Effect addresses a large group of people all having identical memories but they are incorrect. This causes a confusion in society. So many people remember something the same way, but it is not the truth. Because of this problem, reality seems to be distorted and the accuracy of our brains is in question. The Mandela Effect makes it impossible for us to trust our societal brain. The countless examples of the Mandela Effect supply evidence to prove our brains collectively make too many mistakes to be trustworthy. There is a plethora of cases of this strange event …show more content…

Cognitive dissonance is relating to the uneasy feeling our bodies experience when they are faced with information that contradicts our original beliefs or ideas. Everyone that discovers the Mandela Effect and then realizes that they relate to so many of the examples find themselves in a state of astonishment. It resonates with a part of our brain that realizes something is wrong. It continues to make you wonder, what else do I have wrong? The most alarming part is that there’s really no way to confirm or deny what is wrong in your head. Especially memories that have no physical evidence to prove the truth. Everyone is stuck in a paradox of conflicting thoughts and

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Savagery, uncivilized, and hypocritical children have clouded their judgment when trying to figure out if there is a real beastie. A monstrous figure frightens the juvenile boys that landed on this forsaken island. In the Lord of the Flies, these English boys are all alone to defend for themselves, thats when it all unravels. This mythical monster sooner called the “beast” is symbolized a fear of a mistaken beast, as the darkness of war, and the evilness of humanity waiting to be unleashed.

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Something potentially responsible for this phenomenon is the Backfire Effect. David McRaney describes the Backfire Effect with great accuracy in his article “The Backfire Effect”: “coming or going, you stick to your beliefs instead of questioning them. When someone tries to correct you, tries to dilute your misconceptions, it backfires and strengthens them instead” (1). This unbreakable resolve for maintaining beliefs in contradiction to logic prevents us from seeing truth effectively. However, what drives the Backfire Effect?

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In a study done four years before the rape accord, they found that memories can become contagious and manipulated. If the subject picks a face that is close to the face they are trying to identify, they are more likely to perpetually select that person thereafter (Loftus & Green, 1980). When Jennifer was choosing a suspect from the lineup, she selected Ronald with confidence. Jennifer was later given affirmation by the detective, who told her she chose the same person from the mug shot. Thorndike’s Law of Effect, from almost a century earlier, shows positive feedback to a choice or decision can strengthen a memory in any animal (Thorndike, 1898).

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