“Luke, I Am Your Father”: The Formation of False Memories

The phenomenon known as the Mandela Effect is characterized by the formation of false collective memories where many people share the same mistaken memory.

• The name is due to the false memory some people have about Nelson Mandela, the South African leader. They believe he died in the 1980s while in prison. In reality, he died in 2013 at the age of 95.
• Another popular example: The famous phrase attributed to Darth Vader in Episode V of the Star Wars saga, revealing to Luke Skywalker that he was his father: "Luke, I am your father." However, the fact is that this phrase was never said in this way. The phrase spoken by Darth Vader, in fact, is: “No, I am your father."

Some understand memory as a storage location, but this understanding has some limitations.

It does not reflect the nature of mnemonic processes. Unlike a computer hard drive where saved information is 100% recoverable, the human memory has lost information, distortions, and new memories.