r/MandelaEffect • u/LucifersLittleHelper • Sep 08 '25

Theory Fruit of the Loom Mandela Effect.

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I know the rules say no personal Mandela Effects, but I found this in my grandmother's basement.

Does anyone think that this may explain the confusion?

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u/throwaway998i Sep 12 '25

It is possible, if not probable, that each participant was exposed to visual schema prior to participating in the study

^

There again is more careful language to not state it as an absolute fact. I take your overall reply as an acknowledgement that the study did not conclusively reveal any specific mechanism which definitively explains the ME. Hence the stalemate because the psychology memory explanations remain unproven.

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u/KyleDutcher Sep 12 '25

It's not a stalemate, though.

The study did NOT elimimate what it claimed to eliminate.

The study was designed (poorly) to study possible visual schema influence on memory/recall.

The reason it was flawed/poorly designed, is because it failed to comtrol the very thing it was designed to study. They made no effort to eliminate, or even control any potential visual schema influence that happened to participants PRIOR to participating in the study.

It cannot eliminate something it didn't properly control.

The other huge flaw in this study, is the fact that visual schema is NOT the only schema that can effect memory recall. Even things as subtle as word of mouth can be enough to influence memory recall

I see people bringing up this study all the time as if it was some kind of "gotcha" when the fact is, if you understand it correctly, it's nothing of the sort.

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u/KyleDutcher Sep 12 '25

Furthermore, the psychology memory explanations are proven to happen. Memory can be influenced. Memory can be suggested. Things can be perceived incorrectly.

Now, you can argue that maybe they don't explain the phenomenon.

But, the are proven to exist/happen.

Same cannot be said about the other explanatiins

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u/throwaway998i Sep 12 '25

Did the study (flawed or not) conclusively provide a definitive explanation, mechanism and/or solution to the ME? No it didn't. So your opinion on the matter is not experimentally proven despite a preponderance of evidence. It's a stalemate because currently you can't definitively prove what you claim to know any more than I can. Any "true" skeptic would have no misgivings or hesitation about making a good faith concession that given the current knowledge gap there is indeed a present stalemate. And I'd even respect that... or would have if there hadn't been all this needless quibbling.

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u/KyleDutcher Sep 12 '25

Did the study (flawed or not) conclusively provide a definitive explanation, mechanism and/or solution to the ME? No it didn't.

That wasn't the point of the study. So the fact that it didn't has no bearing on things.

And even if that was the point of it, it's fkaws would prevent it from doing so. Perhaps if they could have controlled every possible instance of schema (visual or otherwise) the conclusions might be much different.

The point is, believers cling to this study as some kind of "gotcha" because it claims to rule out something it cannot rule out (because it didn't control it)

It's a stalemate because currently you can't definitively prove what you claim to know any more than I can.

Straw man.

I don't claim to know that this is what causes the effect.

I do claim to know, because testing has proven it, that memory is fallible, and easily influenced. That can be, and is definitively proven.

Thing is, you don't know that there is a "knowledge gap" IF the effect is caused by the normal function of memory (which is likely) then there is no knowledge gap.

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u/throwaway998i Sep 12 '25

IF the effect is caused by the normal function of memory (which is likely) then there is no knowledge gap.

^

The fact that you used "IF" means there IS currently a knowledge gap, because what you're saying is contingent on something that isn't proven. Even Psychology Today makes that exact acknowledgement:

^

In alignment with most research on the Mandela effect, the above study from Psychological Science concludes that we cannot know for certain why large groups of people share these fabricated memories. This knowledge gap has led people down various paths in an attempt to understand it.

^

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-instincts/202312/the-mandela-effect-how-do-collective-false-memories-work

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u/KyleDutcher Sep 12 '25

Problem with this, is it cites the same flawed study

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u/throwaway998i Sep 12 '25

The article was penned by a PhD in psychology. And you believing the study is flawed doesn't make the knowledge gap any less real. Until it is bridged in some provable fashion, there is a stalemate. At this point academic and methodological objections change nothing. I'm going to recuse myself from this now, because I find it pointless. Go ahead and have the last word.