Mandela Effect

noun

variants or less commonly Mandela effect

plural Mandela Effects also Mandela effects

: a phenomenon in which many people collectively misremember a specific fact, event, or detail in a consistent manner : the experience of many people having the same false memory

The Mandela Effect is a social phenomenon in which a group of people incorrectly remember very specific details about a person, place, situation or event as if it were a reality. The term was popularly coined by paranormal researcher Fiona Broome, who shared … that she had a clear memory of former South African president Nelson Mandela dying while in prison in the 1980s. But what she remembered wasn't true.

—Cleveland Clinic

Word History

Etymology

after Nelson mandela; from the memory allegedly shared by a number of people that Mandela died in prison in the 1980's

Note: The term Mandela Effect was allegedly introduced by paranormal researcher Fiona Broome. According to the account published in her book The Mandela Effect - Major Memories Book 1 (self-published in 2019 or 2020), Broome discovered at a Dragon Con convention in 2009 (or 2010?) that others shared the same recollection that Mandela had died in the 1980's, not 2013, his actual death date. The contemporary Internet material that might support the 2009 origin of the expression may no longer exist. A relatively early account of the Mandela Effect is in the online magazine VICE (VICE staff and Mack Lamoureux, "The Berenst(e)ain Bears Conspiracy Theory that Has Convinced the Internet There Are Parallel Universes," August 10, 2015).

First Known Use

2012, in the meaning defined above