Science and Imperfect Memory: Reader Participation Requested

The Science Wars Part 14

"Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?" -Groucho Marx

Find other articles in the Science Wars article series here.

Not only is your participation requested, I would appreciate it if many of you will forward this article to friends who may be interested in taking part in a discussion in order to gather data about an interesting and important mystery. I'll explain more below. For the purpose of this article and all responses, I ask each and every reader not to post anything but answers to the survey for at least 24 hours. Those who post online research, or go beyond the survey prior to the 24 hour period will have their comments deleted so that the exercise can remain as pure as possible. I will also limit comments from those accounts for some period—most likely a month.

Each of us has a flawed memory. This simple statement is obviously true, but the exact details, and the implications of those details, can be quite complex—and quite powerful. Some readers may wish to view this interesting, informative, and amusing episode of the Brain Games series, which includes some educational information about memory formation—and how imperfections of the process can result in false memories. I'm planning multiple future articles that take imperfect memory into account in multiple ways. The implications even get geopolitical in scope.

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The Mandela Effect

According to Wikipedia,

False memories can sometimes be shared by multiple people. This phenomenon was dubbed the "Mandela effect" by paranormal researcher Fiona Broome, who reported having vivid and detailed memories of news coverage of South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, despite Mandela actually dying in 2013 after serving as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. Broome reported that, since 2010, "perhaps thousands" of other people had written online about having the same memory of Mandela's death and she speculated that the phenomenon could be evidence of parallel realities.^[13][14]

This is a challenging topic to handle scientifically, but we're going to end this article with a survey, just to see if a little data sheds some light. I do have a special experiment in mind.

Now, let's move on to some highly discussed examples of the Mandela effect so that those of you who aren't familiar with the topic can get a grip on exactly what we're talking about.

This Buzzfeed article includes numerous examples labeled as the Mandela effect.

Some of these are fairly easy to explain.

Here is an old Oscar Mayer commercial from even before I was born.

When we hear Mayer pronounced, we think "Meyer" in our minds. We then "read" the label without focused attention—because none is necessary. Doing so over a period of years leads to a lot of neurons firing in the same way, cementing the wrong impression. To be perfectly honest, I spelled Oscar Mayer incorrectly until I wound up in an email thread with Alexis Baden-Mayer, granddaughter to the man who Americanized the deli meat mashup. I tactfully resisted the urge to tell her that she spells her name wrong [as a joke].

But what actually freaks me out listening to the old Oscar Mayer commercial is the voice at the very end that pronounces bologna without a long E. However, I did just discover that there are multiple acceptable pronunciations. Of course, that doesn't mean you won't get beat up at school for using some of them. After New York governor Alfred E. Smith began using "baloney" to describe the Beltway bureaucracy, not using a long E seems downright un-American. Satanic even. And as anyone who grew up on bologna sandwiches knows, when you smell Lucifer in the fridge, it's time to throw the sandwich meat out!

No, I have no idea what that means. I just needed to go on that journey to rewire my brain with respect to the spelling of Oscar Mayer.

Such a simple, common, and accidental mind trick may be at play with the Berenstain/Berenstein bears example.

I have a vague memory of a discussion of the often unexpected spelling coming up in elementary school. Perhaps that inoculated some of my peers from this particular Mandela effect, but the conversation would not have taken place were it not already observed that many people got the name wrong.

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Mind-Bendingly Weird

While we can categorize prior examples as "mass misremembering" or something like that, there are far more perplexing examples. A few years ago, I became aware of a controversy over whether or not a particular movie ever existed.

Here is the Snopes article in question, and my Facebook post led to a lively discussion.

Interestingly, I have actually talked to a couple of people who state that they believe in the theory of alternate realities or parallel universes colliding, and people splitting off into the wrong universe—or something like that.

However, when a theory requires me to imagine so much that is outside of any experience, observation, or model known to me, I tend to look for simpler explanations.

Understand that while I don't generally trust Snopes, I am aware that dishonest actors are most successful when they mix truths and lies. So, I always assume that Snopes tells the truth plenty in order to bolster the confidence of its readers (that's called a "confidence game"). It is always up to me, you, and anyone else to handle the combat of information wars—and I like to tour the battlefield in order to best understand the weapons being employed.

We'll see if the 100% dumpster fire ratio holds up. Maybe every article is a con, and the sprinkling of truth throughout the articles is to make a different form of con out of every article. I may comment on this more in Part 2 of this article series.

Note: We are not to the reader participation part, yet. But it's coming.

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Other Examples of the Mandela Effect

You can find numerous videos like this one on YouTube describing some examples of the Mandela effect. But again, some are more banal than others.

Personally, I couldn't care less if "I pity the fool" wasn't used in the A-Team. I've never heard of this as a "controversy", and if some people thought they heard it there, it was probably just because the catch phrase was ubiquitously popular for a while. I think that the memory about Fonzi's jacket could simply be a matter of color contrast on smaller televisions than we're used to now, but there could be another reason. Still, I've never heard anyone talk about these memories, so I don't know (and don't really care) if they're particularly common false memories. I'm more interested in the weird ones. And I have a weird one of my own that I've been entirely unable to research on the internet.

During the early 80s, the singer Mavis Winehardt was all over the place, though never in the spotlight. In fact, she specialized in being out of the spotlight because of her unique talent, which was to perfectly mimic the vocal performances of other singers. In fact, she was a backup singer for a couple of big acts who would sometimes sing a song for the main singer to give them a break. She was so appreciated in the music industry that a lot of musicians included her in their videos whether or not she was one of their backup singers. Michael Winslow invited her to perform with him once, and she completely outperformed him in terms of vocal effects—parroting his effects, but with greater clarity, precision, and amplification. I badly want a video of that performance.

MTV eventually did an hour-long special about her when it was found out that she actually sang somebody's whole album as recorded and distributed—something she didn't contract to do, and did not consent to. I don't remember the singer—was it somebody like Joan Baez, or Annie Lennox?

Weirdly, I cannot find a word on the internet about Winehardt. I can't find her in any of the 80s videos where I thought I might find her. This has been bugging me for about 15 years now, and I've talked to dozens of people who also remember her.

What the heck is going on?

Personally, I think that whatever the answers to these questions might be, a reality that includes Nelson Mandela is already strange enough. Who would have thought that a man who suffered for his activism, including a 27-year prison sentence, and then lead international human rights movements, would not have the faintest clue that his wife organized the kidnapping, torture, and murder of children who were themselves activists?

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Reader Participation: Help Me Gather Data in One Comment

Here is what I would like each reader to do immediately after reading this article (if you have the time). Answer each of the following in the comment section:

• Do you have a memory of a Shazaam movie starring Sinbad?

• Did you remember Berenstein Bears or Berenstain Bears (when you first heard of this memory controversy)?

• Do you have a memory of Mavis Winehardt?

Remember:

• Stick to the survey during the first 24 hours.

• No research. Just answers.

• Don't tell me your opinion of the Mandela effect. I'm planning to discuss additional details in the follow-up article.

• If you can't play by the rules, your comment will be deleted and you will be banned from commenting for one month.

Thank you in advance.

The followup article is here.

https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/science-and-imperfect-memory-a-followup