The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon that causes people to question reality. The Mandela Effect is an occurrence that is based on the recollection of false events by a large majority of people. Like, for example, did you know that the monopoly man never had a monocle? Or that the Fruit of the Loom logo never had a cornucopia? A large amount of people believed that those were included in those company’s graphics and logos.  

 The Mandela Effect was “first coined in 2009 by Fiona Broome when she created a website to detail her observance of the phenomenon. Broome was at a conference talking with other people about how she remembered the tragedy of former South African president Nelson Mandela’s death in a South African prison in the 1980s.” says verywellmind.com. It turns out the Nelson Mandela actually died in 2013 due to heath and respiratory issues. Fiona Broome was not alone in thinking this, however. Many people even remembered his widow giving a speech about the death. That’s how the Mandela effect got attention, and its name. 

 So why does this happen? CogBlog states, “Interference is another cognitive function that relates to the Mandela Effect. Many studies have shown that our memories continuously disrupt one another through interference. They can be disrupted by our past experiences or newly obtained information.” Meaning that recollections and other memories interfere, and we get new memories or confabulations. MedicalNewsToday defines a confabulation as “false memories a person spontaneously generates, often to compensate for holes in a person’s memory”. In many scenarios there is reasoning behind why so many people have these confabulations but in some there isn’t. 

 Here are some examples of this phenomenon.  

 Pikachu doesn’t have a black zig zag at the end of his tail! He actually never has. People may have gotten confused with the black tips of his ears. However, a lot claim that they clearly remember Pikachu to have a black–tipped tail. Along with junior, Emma Barnes said that she remembers Pikachu having a black-tipped tail. Jonathan Quinones, freshman says he remembers Pikachu having a black-tipped tail as well.

 The robber emoji never existed. Some people believed that there was an emoji that had a black and white striped shirt, black pants, and appeared to be running and holding a money bag. People also recall there being another robber emoji of just a face with a black beanie, black domino mask, black and white striped collar, and a money bag.  

 People believe that the Looney Tunes logo was spelt with two o’s in like “toons” rather than what it really is “tunes”.

 Curious George never had a tail. Many people recall Curious George having a tail. This may be because people associate monkeys with long tails. There is one species of monkey that doesn’t have a tail. That is the Barbary Macaque. Forbes says that, “as depicted, Curious George has no tail, suggesting he is an ape or possibly a Barbary macaque.” Barbary macaque or not, a large majority of people believed that Curious George had a tail.

KitKat does not contain a hyphen in its logo. A numerous amount of people recalls it having a hyphen, which would look like Kit-Kat.

C-3PO from Star Wars isn’t all gold! The famous robot has a silver leg below the shin on his right leg. SCREENRANT says, “fans believe his leg was damaged during the Clone Wars and so had to have it replaced – but whoever did it couldn’t find a golden plate, more so as he was covered in golden paint, not made like that, and so a silver one (which is reminiscent of his original look) was given to him.” Even though C-3PO always appeared to have a silver leg in the movies, people still didn’t recall it.