page_title: False memory
section_title: Mandela effect
hierarchical_section_title: False memory / Manifestations and types / Mandela effect
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Orologio della stazione di Bologna fermo alle 10:25 ora della strage del 02/08/1980
context_page_description: In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where a person recalls something that did not happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation and source misattribution have been suggested to be several mechanisms underlying a variety of types of false memory phenomena.
  False memories are a component of False Memory Syndrome.
context_section_description: False memories can sometimes be shared by multiple people. It is also the Mandela effect sometimes One prominent example comes from a 2010 study that examined people familiar with the clock at Bologna Centrale railway station, which was damaged in the Bologna massacre bombing in August 1980. In the study, 92% of respondents falsely remembered the clock had remained stopped since the bombing when, in fact, the clock was repaired shortly after the attack. Years later the clock was again stopped and set to the time of the bombing in observance and commemoration of the bombing. Other such examples include memories of the Berenstain Bears' name being spelled Berenstein, and of the existence of a 1990s movie entitled Shazaam starring comedian Sinbad as a genie.
  In 2010 this shared false memory phenomenon was dubbed the Mandela effect by self-described "paranormal consultant" Fiona Broome in reference to her false memory of the death of South African leader Nelson Mandela in the 1980s (he actually died in December 2013), which she claimed was shared by "perhaps thousands" of other people.
  Scientists suggest that these are examples of false memories shaped by similar cognitive factors affecting multiple people and family, such as social and cognitive reinforcement of incorrect memories or false news reports and misleading photographs that influence the formation of memories based on them. For example, the false memories of Shazaam have been explained as a confabulation of memories of the comedian wearing a genie-like costume during a TV presentation of Sinbad the Sailor movies in 1994, and a similarly named 1996 film Kazaam featuring a genie played by Shaquille O'Neal. In addition, in 1960s, Hanna-Barbera had an animated series about a genie called Shazzan.
caption: The Bologna station clock, subject of a collective false memory
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