Millennial Shares Truth About Cancer in Painfully Honest Memoir: "13 Diamonds - Life Before Death from a Child's Perspective"

13 Diamonds - Life Before Death from a Child's Perspective

Thirteen years after losing her mother to brain cancer, author Manon Rinsma finally found strength to share her uncensored voice in a memoir. Under the slogan: "If you do feel lonely – let us be alone together," she initiates honest conversations about heartbreaking moments in life.

Manon Rinsma, a well-traveled, adventurous millennial with a lot of invisible baggage, refused to become a victim of her circumstances. By helping people understand the experience of losing a parent from a 12-year-old's perspective, she hopes to give insight and support to prevent others from missing out on valuable time.

13 Diamonds – Life Before Death from A Child's Perspective is a story about family. It is about hope and all the beauty life has to offer, until the unimaginable strikes and a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball made itself at home, intruding in the happy lives of a loving family. 13 Diamonds portrays the feelings and views of a young girl who witnessed her mother, the brightest, most beautiful woman she knew, slowly die – taken by this horrific form of cancer. It is about strength, life, death, beauty, grief, and most importantly, it is a story about love.

➤ 13 Diamonds – Life Before Death from a Child's Perspective is now available at Amazon.com

About Manon Rinsma

(via ManonRinsma.com)

Manon Rinsma - Author

Manon Rinsma, MSc – is a Dutch millennial, world traveler and writer. She graduated her BA in Communications with honors in the Netherlands, and finished her Master of Science in Media Psychology by the age of 23.

She worked with prominent international events, world-class commercial brands, a broad range of entertainment companies, and several governmental institutions. Manon traveled to 51 countries and has a true passion for connecting with people by sharing stories.

“Don’t be a victim of you circumstances, seize the day!”
“If you do feel lonely – let us be alone together.”

SOURCE: Manon Rinsma, MSc

Study Suggests Donald Trump May Owe His 2016 Victory To 'Fake News'

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton concedes the 2016 presidential election. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Could “fake news” have helped determine the outcome of the 2016 presidential election?Social media users and intensely partisan news broadcasts disseminated a massive number of messages during the campaign. Many of these messages demonized candidates and seriously distorted the facts presented to voters. One recent study of nearly 25,000 election social media messages shared by Michigan voters identified nearly half as “unverified WikiLeaks content and Russian-origin news stories” that fall “under the definition of propaganda based on its use of language and emotional appeals.”

What hasn’t been clear, however, is how much of an impact – if any – these “fake news” items had on the outcome of the election. To our knowledge, there have been no empirical studies that have systematically assessed the extent to which believing fake news stories influenced voting decisions in 2016. So, we set out to do one.

We are scholars associated with the Comparative National Elections Project, which is coordinated at The Ohio State University. In December 2016, we commissioned YouGov to conduct a nationwide post-election survey. Our study concludes that fake news most likely did have a substantial impact on the voting decisions of a strategically important set of voters.

⏩ Here’s what we learned.

Our research questions
The survey had 1,600 respondents. We focus our analysis on the 2016 electoral behavior of 585 respondents who had voted for Barack Obama in 2012. This strategic subset of voters was selected for two reasons.

• First, restricting our analysis to former Obama supporters allowed us to weed out those respondents who were hostile to all Democratic candidates.

• Second, if Hillary Clinton had retained the support of Obama voters, she would have most likely won the 2016 election. Instead, just 77 percent of Obama voters supported Clinton. Our survey data show that 10 percent of these former Obama voters cast ballots for Trump in 2016, 4 percent switched to minor parties and 8 percent did not vote.

⏩ Our key research question is: What accounts for these defections?

Study methodology and results
Our survey asked 281 questions, including three false statements best characterized as fake news – two negative statements about Hillary Clinton and one positive statement about Donald Trump. All three were widely disseminated through social media and spread by mainstream and partisan news outlets.

• The first is that “Hillary Clinton is in very poor health due to a serious illness.” Twenty-five percent of all survey respondents believed that this was “definitely true” or “probably true,” as did 12 percent of our former Obama supporters.

• The second is a statement that asked our respondents if they believed that “During her time as U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Clinton approved weapon sales to Islamic jihadists, including ISIS.” Thirty-five percent of our national sample believed that Clinton had sold weapons to the Islamic State, as did 20 percent of former Obama voters.

• Finally, the third is a statement that “Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump for president prior to the election.” About 10 percent of our national sample and 8 percent of Obama supporters thought this statement was true.

Belief in these fake news stories is very strongly linked to defection from the Democratic ticket by 2012 Obama voters. Among respondents who didn’t believe any of the fake news stories, 89 percent cast ballots for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Sixty-one percent of those who believed one fake news item voted for Clinton. But only 17 percent of those who believed two or all three of these false assertions voted for Clinton.


2016 support for Hillary Clinton among 2012 Obama voters 
The column on the left shows the number of fake news statements rated 'probably' or 'definitely' true by 2012 Obama voters. The solid bar shows what percentage of the respondents answering that way voted for Hillary Clinton.

The Conversation CC-BY-ND

Source: Comparative National Elections Project USA Survey 2016  Get the data

To be sure, data from a one-time survey cannot “prove” that these fake news items caused former Obama voters to defect. It is also possible that someone who chose not to vote for Clinton might endorse these false statements after the fact in order to rationalize their voting decision.

⏩ We also explored a number of other possible explanations for these voters’ defections.

What explains the voters who backed Obama but not Trump? The study shows sexism wasn’t a main cause. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Clinton campaign heavily emphasized gender issues in an attempt to mobilize female voters. Could this have alienated men to the extent that they abandoned their prior support for the Democratic presidential candidate? Our data provide no support for such a claim. An identical 23 percent of both male and female respondents who had voted for Obama in 2012 defected from the Democratic ticket.

Did the lack of an African-American presidential candidate lead black voters to waiver in their commitment to the Democratic candidate? No. Indeed, fewer African-American voters (20 percent) defected from Clinton than did white voters (23 percent).

Age is weakly related to defection from Clinton. While 20 percent of voters over 35 abandoned the Democratic ticket in 2016, 30 percent of younger voters did so.

Education is also weakly associated with defection. Among college-educated former Obama voters, just 16 percent did not vote for Clinton, but the percentage almost doubled to 27 percent defecting for those with lower educational attainment.

More overtly political variables had a stronger impact. Half of those who placed themselves near the conservative end of the ideological scale defected from the Democratic candidate, while only 14 percent of those on the left did so.

Similarly, dissatisfaction with the condition of the economy also had an impact: Just 12 percent of those who thought that the economic situation at the time of the survey was “good” or “very good” abandoned Hillary Clinton, while 39 percent who regarded the economy as “poor” or “very poor” at the time of the survey defected from the Democratic ticket.

Party identification exerted a stronger influence. Among the former Obama voters who identified themselves as Democrats, 7 percent did not vote for Clinton. This rose to 40 percent among independents and to 68 percent among those who identified with the Republican, Libertarian or Green parties.

Controlling for alternative explanations
So do all of these alternative factors mean it’s impossible to measure the unique impact of belief in fake news on the vote in 2016? Actually social science offers us a way. Multiple regression analysis is a tool that allows researchers to account for many different factors influencing behavior, in this case defecting from the Democratic ticket in 2016.

We used this tool to estimate the joint impact on the vote of all of these alternative explanatory factors. The first equation we ran included gender, race, age, education, ideological orientation, dissatisfaction with the condition of the economy and party identification. All together, these variables “explained” 38 percent of the likelihood of defection.

We then added the fake news items to the equation to measure their impact. The three fake news items explained an additional 14 percent of the likelihood of Obama voters defecting after the influence of all of the other variables had been taken into consideration.

We also added one more compelling element to our study. Using “feeling thermometers,” we measured how much each respondent liked or disliked Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. If defection of Obama voters was only due to disliking Hillary Clinton or liking Donald Trump, then the introduction of this thermometer variable into the equation should make the link with fake news disappear.

Though how people felt about Clinton and Trump did somewhat reduce the strength of the relationship between fake news and defection, it did not eliminate it. Belief in fake news remained a significant predictor of defecting from Clinton. In sum, even after the impact of all of these other factors is taken into consideration, former Obama voters who believed one or more of these fake news stories were 3.3 times more likely to defect from the Democratic ticket in 2016 than those who did not believe any of these false claims.

That may not seem like much, but Clinton lost the presidency by about 78,000 votes (0.6 percent of nationwide vote) cast in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Though our evidence does not “prove” that belief in fake news “caused” these former Obama voters to defect from the Democratic candidate in 2016, our study results suggest that it is highly likely that the pernicious pollution of our political discourse by fake news was sufficient to influence the outcome of what was a very close election.

About Today's Contributors:
Richard Gunther, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, The Ohio State University; Erik C. Nisbet, Associate Professor of Communication, Political Science, and Environmental Policy and Faculty Associate with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Ohio State University, and Paul Beck, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, The Ohio State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

More "Fake News" Related Stories:

Fake News Invasion (via LoupDargent.info)

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• There's an Insidious Strategy Behind Donald Trump's Retweets
• Why 'Judeo-Christian Values' Are A Dog-Whistle Myth Peddled By The Far Right
• 14 Year Fox News Contributor Tobin Smith and Filmmaker Jen Senko Launch "FIGHT BACK AGAINST FOX NEWS" Crowdfunding Campaign to Publish Book "Fear & UnBalanced" & Distribute "The Brainwashing of My Dad" Documentary
• National Press Club Examines 2016 Russian Election Hacking at a Headliners Book Rap Featuring Donna Brazile on December 12th

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Frist Center Presents "We Shall Overcome: Civil Rights and the Nashville Press, 1957-1968"

Demonstrators sing in front of the Nashville Police Department on August 7, 1961, as they protest what they called police brutality in a racial clash two nights earlier. They criticized “inadequate” police protection and called for qualified black personnel to “replace incompetent officers on the police force.” 

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts will present a selection of 50 photographs from the archives of The Tennessean and The Nashville Bannerthat document an important period in Nashville's struggle for racial equality. The black-and-white photographs will be on display from March 30 through October 14, 2018 in the always free Conte Community Arts Gallery.

We Shall Overcome opens to the public fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, at a time when race relations and human rights are again at the forefront of our country's political and social consciousness. The images were taken between 1957, the year that desegregation began in public schools, and 1968, when Dr. King was killed in Memphis. Of central significance are photographs of lunch counter sit-ins led by a group of students—including John Lewis and Diane Nash—from local historically black colleges and universities, which took place in early 1960.

"The exhibition builds on a recent swelling of interest in the subject throughout the city," writes Frist Center curator Katie Delmez. "The role that Nashville played in the national civil rights movement as a hub for training students in nonviolent protest and as the first city in the Southeast to integrate places of business peacefully is a story that warrants reexamination and introduction to younger generations and newcomers to the region who may not be familiar with this meaningful legacy."

⏩ The photographs are sourced from the archives of Nashville's daily newspapers: The Tennessean and the shuttered Nashville Banner. Some were published, but many were not.

The exhibition begins with a selection of images documenting the desegregation of Nashville's public schools in September 1957, three years after the Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling. Early 1960 witnessed the next wave of impactful events, when hundreds of young men and women sat at lunch counters to protest the businesses' refusal to serve African Americans. Despite being assaulted by counter-protestors and arrested for disorderly conduct, the students, mostly from Fisk University, Tennessee A&I (now Tennessee State University), Meharry Medical College, and American Baptist College, remained dedicated to peaceful resistance. In the spring of 1960, the bombing of civil rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby's home spurred as many as four thousand protestors to walk in silence to the Davidson County Courthouse, where Fisk student Diane Nash asked Mayor Ben West if segregation was wrong and if the businesses should be integrated, to which he replied yes.

Despite this significant moment, and the resulting desegregation of some businesses in downtown Nashville, there was still much more to be done to advance civil rights in the city. The mid 1960s saw continued demonstrations to desegregate movie theaters, swimming pools, restaurants, the YMCA, and other public places.

During this period, confrontation between protestors and counter-demonstrators or police became at times more tense. "Media, especially reporters and photojournalists from the more progressive Tennessean newspaper, was often there to cover the news-making events," says Delmez. "The exhibition provides an opportunity to consider the role of images and the media in shaping public opinion, a relevant subject in today's news-saturated climate."

Publication

“Archie Allen, left, a member of the civil rights demonstrators, talks with employees of the Tic Toc Restaurant on downtown Church Street April 27, 1964. Moments later, Allen was attacked by the employees and knocked down on the sidewalk.” (via The Frist Center)

The Frist Center and Vanderbilt University Press are co-publishing a book titled We Shall Overcome: Press Photographs of Nashville in the Civil Rights Era. The publication will feature 100 plates selected from the archives of The Tennessean and The Nashville Banner. 

The book will also include a foreword by Congressman John Lewis, who was a leader in the local student nonviolent resistance; an essay outlining the history of the period by Linda Wynn, Fisk University professor and assistant director of the Tennessee Historical Commission; and an overview of the position of photojournalism during the movement by Dr. Susan H. Edwards, photography historian and Frist Center executive director. 

A timeline and a bibliography will also be featured. The book is edited by Katie Delmez, curator of the accompanying exhibition. Generous support from various community leaders will allow the book to be placed in all Davidson County public schools and libraries.

Exhibition Credit

This exhibition was organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

All images generously provided by The Tennessean and the Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, which houses the Nashville Banner Archives.

Public Programs

Saturday, April 14 

"Voices from the Front Lines" A panel discussion with participants in the local civil rights movement, moderated by historian Linda Wynn

Noon 

Frist Center 

Auditorium 

Hear the stories behind the photographs of We Shall Overcome: Civil Rights and the Nashville Press, 1957–1968, and take a deeper look at the civil rights movement. Moderated by Linda Wynn, this panel will feature first-person accounts by individuals who fought for racial equity in Nashville.

About the Frist Center: 

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit art exhibition center dedicated to presenting and originating high-quality exhibitions with related educational programs and community outreach activities. 

Located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., the Frist Center offers the finest visual art from local, regional, national, and international sources in exhibitions that inspire people through art to look at their world in new ways.
                                                                                       

SOURCE: Frist Center for the Visual Arts

Marvel Music And Hollywood Records Present Marvel Studios' Black Panther Original Motion Picture Score Soundtrack

Marvel Studios Black Panther Original Motion Picture score soundtrack artwork

Marvel Music/Hollywood Records are releasing the digital album of the Black Panther score, composed by Grammy®-nominated composer and songwriter Ludwig Göransson, on February 16, 2018.   

The film is directed by Ryan Coogler and produced by Kevin Feige with Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Nate Moore, Jeffrey Chernov and Stan Lee serving as executive producers. Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole wrote the screenplay.  Marvel Studios' "Black Panther" hits U.S. theaters on February 16, 2018.   

"Black Panther" marks Göransson's third collaboration with director Ryan Coogler ("Creed," "Fruitvale Station").  The Swedish-born composer wrote the original songs for "Creed" and has also produced albums for Childish Gambino, Haim, and Chance the Rapper.

Göransson recorded the score in London with a 132-piece western classical orchestra, African percussionists and a 40-person choir. Göransson said, "After reading Ryan's first draft of the script, I quickly realized that the only way I could properly score 'Black Panther' was to travel to Africa to record, research and learn from as many musicians I could find. I was introduced to Senegal's most incredible musicians and storytellers, and from there it all started to come together.  One of the instruments that especially caught my attention was the talking drum, which together with West African sabar drums and ceremonial rhythms, became the foundation for the score."

Göransson infused a wide array of African instrumentation into the score and character themes.  Speaking about the score's creation, Göransson notes: "The talking drum is used for T'Challa's main theme, with one hit per syllable of his name played on the drum."  For Erik Killmonger's theme, the name was sung and screamed into a fula flute to convey the "musical interpretation of the character's ferocity."   Sabar drums were used to "propel the story and to highlight both the country of Wakanda and T'Challa's movements, especially in his fight scenes."  Sabar drums are used in traditional African wrestling "making them perfect for the action scenes."

Göransson's biggest challenge was to blend a western classical orchestra and modern production with traditional African rhythms and harmonies.  He adds, "Together with Ryan Coogler, we worked out new ways of combining the three elements into something traditionally authentic and truly unique, that I hope embodies the heart and soul of Wakanda."

• The "Black Panther" digital album is available for pre-order here.  
• The soundtrack can be streamed here . 

About Marvel Studios' "Black Panther"

Black Panther  - Poster

Marvel Studios' "Black Panther" follows T'Challa who, after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king. But when a powerful old enemy reappears, T'Challa's mettle as king—and Black Panther—is tested when he is drawn into a formidable conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people and their way of life.

"Black Panther" stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, with Angela Bassett, with Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis.
              

The Trailer:

SOURCE: Marvel Music/Hollywood Records

From Trailer Parks to the White House

From Trailer Parks to the White House

As recent headlines of alleged domestic violence by top White House officials demonstrate, abusive behavior transcends all socio-economic lines. Dr. Laura Streyffeler's book, Wife Beater Shirt Optional, reveals that abuse is not limited by social or economic class, age, race, gender, or sexual orientation. Using real life examples and frank discussions, the author pulls the reader into the minds and behaviors of both victims and abusers.  

The book introduces you to an upper middle class woman who denied being a victim of domestic violence because in her mind, real victims "live in trailer parks and their husbands wear 'wifebeater shirts'." 

This book explains why there is no dress code for domestic violence. Dr. Laura Streyffeler addresses the many myths and misperceptions about domestic abuse and violence.

Recent headlines of sexual abuse in the entertainment industry is another example of abuse of power.  Dr. Streyffeler's book discusses the dynamics of power and control, the various types of abuse and the resulting trauma.  

A trending question is "Why is it taking victims so long to come forward?" Dr. Streyffeler's book provides the answer to this question and many more.

"Wife Beater Shirt Optional" 
By Laura Streyffeler, Ph.D., LMHC 

Hardcover | 5.5 x 8.5 in | 154 pages | ISBN 9781504388238 
Softcover | 5.5 x 8.5 in | 154 pages | ISBN 9781504388214 
E-Book | 154 pages | ISBN 9781504388221

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author:

Dr. Laura Streyffeler (via Psychology Today)

Laura Streyffeler, Ph.D., LMHC, is a licensed mental health counselor and a board certified expert in traumatic stress and in domestic violence and forensic counseling. Streyffeler maintains a psychotherapy practice while providing professional trainings and serving as an expert witness in domestic and sexual violence and other trauma related court cases.

SOURCE:  Dr. Laura Streyffeler, WBSO LLC

To Amber Rudd: Shut Down Nazi Websites On UK Soil [Petition]

Amber Rudd - UK Home Secretary (via EU Today)

The following is an email I've received earlier from our friends at HOPE Not Hate... As usual, feel free to read it and act accordingly.

Thanks in advance.

Stay safe!

Loup Dargent

The web content of NS131, a neo-Nazi organisation that celebrated the murder of Jo Cox MP (above), is being stored in London and Manchester. (via The Guardian)

The Email:

"Loup,
Some big news just in from our research team: violent, neo-Nazi and terrorist websites are being stored illegally on UK soil.

Cloudflare, a big US web company, is storing the website of at least one banned terrorist organisation - NS131 - right here in London and Manchester. This might breach hate crime and Holocaust denial laws, it is definitely unethical, and it goes against Government calls for firms to clamp down on hate speech online.

NS131 is so hateful the government banned it in 2016 -- it's even accused of ties to a plot to kill a Labour MP. We've always thought that, by hosting their hatred in the US, these extremists were beyond the reach of the UK authorities. But now we might have a chance to hurt these Nazi groups' ability to promote their vile views.

This news is a HOPE not hate exclusive, and it's not widely known -- yet. So we need you to break this story. It'll take as many of us as possible adding our names to a petition to call on the Home Secretary to investigate and shut down this loophole. Add yours now: 

Sign the petition

Cloudflare sells websites a protective shield that blocks them from attacks. NS131 is just one of its clients which include some of the most violent, extreme, and illegal organisations in the world, and it's storing them in our backyard.

Until now, our government's hands are tied because far-right groups hide websites "offshore" in the US, where hate laws are lax. The revelation that many are kept closer to home in the UK is game-changing.

This government has already banned NS131, so she shouldn't take too much convincing to eradicate this cyberspace loophole if HOPE not hate supporters get it out in the open.

Sign the petition to Amber Rudd now: launch a full-scale investigation into the practices of Cloudflare's website protection services and immediately shut down websites that store illegal and extremist content on servers in the UK.

Thanks,
The HOPE not hate team"

NS131 - Neo-nazi group banned in the UK  (image via HOPE Not Hate)

More Related Links:

• A Home For Hate
• National Action: Neo-Nazi group's aliases 'Scottish Dawn' and 'NS131' banned under terrorism laws, says Home Office
• Far-right groups Scottish Dawn and NS131 to be banned under terror laws
• Who are National Action / NS131 / Scottish Dawn?

The 'Mandela Effect' And How Your Mind Is Playing Tricks On You

(Image via Shutterstock)

By Neil Dagnall, Manchester Metropolitan University and Ken Drinkwater, Manchester Metropolitan University

Have you ever been convinced that something is a particular way only to discover you’ve remembered it all wrong? If so, it sounds like you’ve experienced the phenomenon known as the Mandela Effect.

This form of collective misremembering of common events or details first emerged in 2010, when countless people on the internet falsely remembered Nelson Mandela was dead. It was widely believed he had died in prison during the 1980s. In reality, Mandela was actually freed in 1990 and passed away in 2013 – despite some people’s claims they remember clips of his funeral on TV.

Paranormal consultant Fiona Broome coined the term “Mandela Effect” to explain this collective misremembering, and then other examples started popping up all over the internet. For instance, it was wrongly recalled that C-3PO from Star Wars was gold, actually one of his legs is silver. Likewise, people often wrongly believe that the Queen in Snow White says, “Mirror, mirror on the wall”. The correct phrase is “magic mirror on the wall”.

Broome explains the Mandela Effect via pseudoscientific theories. She claims that differences arise from movement between parallel realities (the multiverse). This is based on the theory that within each universe alternative versions of events and objects exist.

Broome also draws comparisons between existence and the holodeck of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. The holodeck was a virtual reality system, which created recreational experiences. By her explanation, memory errors are software glitches. This is explained as being similar to the film The Matrix.

Other theories propose that the Mandela Effect evidences changes in history caused by time travellers. Then there are the claims that distortions result from spiritual attacks linked to Satan, black magic or witchcraft. But although appealing to many, these theories are not scientifically testable.

Where’s the science?
Psychologists explain the Mandela Effect via memory and social effects – particularly false memory. This involves mistakenly recalling events or experiences that have not occurred, or distortion of existing memories. The unconscious manufacture of fabricated or misinterpreted memories is called confabulation. In everyday life confabulation is relatively common.

False memories occur in a number of ways. For instance, the Deese-Roediger and McDermott paradigm demonstrates how learning a list of words that contain closely related items – such as “bed” and “pillow” – produces false recognition of related, but non presented words – such as “sleep”.

There’s a theory online that nuclear research experiments caused the world to shift into an alternate reality where Donald Trump became president.(Shutterstock)

Memory inaccuracy can also arise from what’s known as “source monitoring errors”. These are instances where people fail to distinguish between real and imagined even. US professor of psychology, Jim Coan, demonstrated how easily this can happen using the “Lost in the Mall” procedure.

This saw Coan give his family members short narratives describing childhood events. One, about his brother getting lost in a shopping mall, was invented. Not only did Coan’s brother believe the event occurred, he also added additional detail. When cognitive psychologist and expert on human memory, Elizabeth Loftus, applied the technique to larger samples, 25% of participants failed to recognise the event was false.

Incorrect recall
When it comes to the Mandela Effect, many examples are attributable to so called “schema driven errors”. Schemas are organised “packets” of knowledge that direct memory. In this way, schemas facilitate understanding of material, but can produce distortion.

Frederic Bartlett outlined this process in his 1932 book Remembering. Barlett read the Canadian Indian folktale “War of the Ghosts” to participants. He found that listeners omitted unfamiliar details and transformed information to make it more understandable.

This process is called “effort after meaning” and occurs in real world situations too. For instance, research has previously shown how when participants recall the contents of a psychologist’s office they tend to remember the consistent items such as bookshelves, and omit the inconsistent items – like a picnic basket.

The pseudoscientific belief puts differences between memories and the real world down to glitches caused by time travel. (Pexels)

Schema theory explains why previous research shows that when the majority of participants are asked to draw a clock face from memory, they mistakenly draw IV rather than IIII. Clocks often use IIII because it is more attractive.

Other examples of the Mandela Effect are the mistaken belief that Uncle Pennybags (Monopoly man) wears a monocle, and that the product title “KitKat” contains a hyphen (“Kit-Kat”). But this is simply explained by over-generalisation of spelling knowledge.

Back to reality
Frequently reported errors can then become part of collective reality. And the internet can reinforce this process by circulating false information. For example, simulations of the 1997 Princess Diana car crash are regularly mistaken for real footage.

In this way then, the majority of Mandela Effects are attributable to memory errors and social misinformation. The fact that a lot of the inaccuracies are trivial, suggests they result from selective attention or faulty inference.

This is not to say that the Mandela Effect is not explicable in terms of the multiverse. Indeed, the notion of parallel universes is consistent with the work of quantum physicists. But until the existence of alternative realities is established, psychological theories appear much more plausible.

About Today's Contributors:
Neil Dagnall, Reader in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University and Ken Drinkwater, Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Cognitive and Parapsychology, Manchester Metropolitan University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

Bonus Videos: