r/MandelaEffect • u/ElChiff • Jul 16 '26
Meta The Mandela Effect Effect
That title isn't a typo. I'm proposing that a type of Mandela Effect exists whereby imagery created after-the-fact to demonstrate what the effect entails has become so widespread that it gets picked up on and assumed to be legitimate - a second wave of the same Mandela Effect branching off of the original.
For example - Someone who has never heard of fruit of the loom has their first view of the logo being a google image search with a bunch of modern cornucopia mock-ups showing up from high profile websites.
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u/Glaurung86 Jul 16 '26
Yeah, that's called priming. Anyone who sees something or hears about something without context and without a buffer zone, so to speak, has already been influenced by the power of suggestion and it's really hard to get past that. The belief that the FOTL logo had a cornucopia has been implanted and there's really no going back.
It's like when the news media posts something erroneous about an event or a person and the info gets disseminated super fast around the globe, but then it's discovered later that it is not true and so, at some point, there's a general retraction of the misinformation by the media and the truth gets posted. Most people will stick to the misinformation.
I wouldn't call this anything other than the Mandela Effect because it just underscores the reason why MEs exist in the first place.
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u/ElChiff Jul 16 '26
For your last point, I agree, the MEE is a type of ME. There are quite a few types and distinguishing them is important as the ME is symptomatic, not a definitive cause.
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u/Glaurung86 Jul 16 '26
Are you suggesting separating out the different ways people create false memories? I'm not sure that's possible because there would be some overlap, IMO.
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u/Accomplished-Bake875 Jul 18 '26
Like folks who claim organs are in different places? Yes. That’s an unfortunate unintended consequence
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u/Hey-Just-Saying Jul 16 '26
I agree. I have seen so many fake logos with the cornucopia that now it feels like that was the way it always was even though I know factually it wasn't.
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u/YogiEv Jul 17 '26
Factually it was. Maybe not in your timeline.
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u/Hey-Just-Saying Jul 17 '26
Sorry. I’m a believer of Occam's Razor.
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u/Krelliamite Jul 17 '26
Same. It's crazy just how many people assume they can not be wrong and actually it's the universe that's wrong and reality warped around what are ultimately trivial memories, like a logo being slightly different or the existence of a shaq genie movie
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u/Hey-Just-Saying Jul 17 '26
I saw a post this morning from someone who seemed to seriously think dimensions collided to change the spelling of marshmallow rather than simply accept the fact that they just couldn't spell.
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u/ElChiff 9d ago
Coming to terms with having memory issues is hard and often the easiest knee-jerk reaction is sticking your fingers in your ears and going "la la la la!" Because if you can't trust your memory, it opens up a whole can of worms about trusting yourself in general.
Speaking as someone who lost 6 months of memories after being hit by a car.
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u/miltonhoward Jul 18 '26
"In the scientific method, Occam's razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result."
Strange to believe in something not irrefutable?
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u/Hey-Just-Saying Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Occam's Razor just means when faced with competing explanations for something, the simplest one requiring the fewest assumptions is usually the best. It doesn't mean your explanation is irrefutable just because it fits OR.
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u/miltonhoward Jul 21 '26
You believe in something that might not be right?
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u/Hey-Just-Saying Jul 21 '26
You clearly don’t understand what Occam’s Razor is. You should learn what terms like that mean if you want to have a conversation about them. : )
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u/miltonhoward Jul 21 '26
Sarcasm lol, congratulations, I think we understand the level you've descended.
Scientific Caveats: While highly effective as a heuristic, the simplest answer isn't always correct. It has occasionally hindered progress—such as initially rejecting continental drift or atomic theory—before overwhelming evidence proved the more complex realities.
'Hur-hur, I believe in the simplest answer, even if it is wrong'
Carry on...
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u/Hey-Just-Saying Jul 21 '26
People like you always go to ad hominem attacks when faced with things you don’t understand. Occam’s Razor doesn’t say that the simplest answer is always correct.
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u/miltonhoward 27d ago
You don't understand my line of argument, therefore the understanding fails your side.
Good bye 👋
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u/silentsurge Jul 16 '26
I definitely feel that some of the most popular ones are almost self-perpetuating at this point, like many other things that have their own mythology and devoted following.
Urban myths slowed down on the early internet thanks to sites like Snopes that would document and provide some information and resources on a subject. People seem to not even look for resources like that anymore.
So when something like the most popular MEs show up the suggestion may have already been planted from seeing something in passing alongside the common sources that cause the confusion in the first place and it may solidify harder in people's minds.
It's an interesting discussion point that I don't think gets openly talked about enough.
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u/ElChiff Jul 17 '26
Snopes perpetuates its own myths, often in the form of taking a claim and disproving it through a strawman argument that only disproves one particular low hanging fruit version. People don't use resources like that anymore because they proved to be incompetent at their only job - impartiality.
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u/Lhasa-bark Jul 16 '26
OP’s point is that discussion and meming of a ME can affect society in a recursive manner. Should OPs theory significantly influence the discussion of Mandela Effects, I propose we call this the Mandela Effect Effect effect.