Mandela Effect

The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon where a group of people collectively misremember a fact, event, or detail, believing something to be true that isn’t[1].

It is named after the once widely held misconception that Nelson Mandela died in a South African prison on Robben Island in the 1980s, when he actually died in 2013.

Another example includes false memories like the belief that Darth Vader said “Luke, I am your father”, when the actual quote was: “No, I am your father”. See here:
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At its core, the Mandela Effect is a type of collective false memory. This means that many unrelated individuals recall the same detail incorrectly. Human memory is not a perfect recording device and is highly suggestible. Details can be warped or altered over time, especially if they were not initially paid close attention to. Also, information from other people can influence and change our own memories. If many people share a particular version of a memory, it can reinforce that false memory in others.

The Mandela Effect is mainly studied in psychology as a quirk of human memory. The most widely accepted explanation is therefore that the Mandela Effect is a psychological phenomenon rooted in the imperfections and malleability of human memory[2].

[1] Varnum: The Psychology Behind the Mandela Effect in Psychology Today – 2024. See here.
[2] Loftus, Palmer: Reconstruction of auto-mobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory in Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior - 1974