Poll of the Day > Is there a cousin to the Mandela Effect? ... (more infos inside)

(+) Yeah! (+)

The phenomenon I'm talking about is when you learn a new thing, or a new word, it begins to show up in multiple places.

For me, for example, I like geology stuff so it's really weird that I haven't heard the term "zeolite" before... could have been just an oversight and would have been something I learned if I went to college for Geology.

But since I became aware of the word, I noticed it show up in more locations...

In this case, I was introduced to the word zeolite in a debunk video where they were being used homeopathically, but then the next day I was given a paper on zeolite filtration in ancient Mayan cities (which is an interesting read regardless... https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75023-7)

But then shortly after that someone used zeolite presence in a biblical debunk... just, ALL OF A SUDDEN ZEOLITE!!!!

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Lokarin posted...

when you learn a new thing, or a new word, it begins to show up in multiple places

ok, yes, that happens to me all the time and it's weird. learn a concept you never heard of before, and then immediately hear it used randomly in two separate places on that same day. very strange.

it's very weird, because it's not like you'll hear it every day for the rest of time. no, you hear about it multiple times immediately after learning about it, and then rarely if ever again.

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Confirmation bias?

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The Mandela Effect relates to a weird phenomena. What you're describing is just common and unremarkable. There's a lot of stuff that we don't notice simply because there's an absurd amount of things going on at any time. However, if something comes to our attention, it may be more likely to be noticed going forward. You use the example of a new thing or words, but I'd also use actors. There are a lot of actors I never paid much attention to until one specific role, then started looking back and realized that they were in a lot of other things I watched (or in upcoming stuff). In some cases, I liked the previous performances as well.

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Zeus posted...

The Mandela Effect relates to a weird phenomena. What you're describing is just common and unremarkable. There's a lot of stuff that we don't notice simply because there's an absurd amount of things going on at any time. However, if something comes to our attention, it may be more likely to be noticed going forward. You use the example of a new thing or words, but I'd also use actors. There are a lot of actors I never paid much attention to until one specific role, then started looking back and realized that they were in a lot of other things I watched (or in upcoming stuff). In some cases, I liked the previous performances as well.

Pretty much. I'm sure there's an actual name for it, but it really boils down to the fact that learning about something new primes you to notice it more readily. As the novelty fades, you stop being as consciously aware of it, so it stops seeming as common.

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Zeus posted...

The Mandela Effect relates to a weird phenomena.

The Mandela Effect is just when one has memories, that contradict reality and then that wrong memory has to be prevalent amongst more people. Some of the potential explanations people have come up with are weird, the phenomenon in itself not really.

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Nichtcrawler X posted...

The Mandela Effect is just when one has memories, that contradict reality and then that wrong memory has to be prevalent amongst more people. Some of the potential explanations people have come up with are weird, the phenomenon in itself not really.

The weirdness of the effect isn't that one person's memory is jumbled, but how many people remember the wrong thing. In the same of something like the Berentain Bears, it's understandable because it's an unusual naming convention with a more common counterpart. However, when you have a lot of people who somehow believe Nelson Mandela died in prison, it feels like there has to be something else at work. And the explanations for what's happening often aren't just weird, they're flat-out crazy.

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Obviously it's a case of the membranes between dimensions becoming thin in some places

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If there is, do you think Mandela would have hit it and claimed it never happened?

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Recency illusion or bader meinhoff

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Sahuagin posted...

ok, yes, that happens to me all the time and it's weird. learn a concept you never heard of before, and then immediately hear it used randomly in two separate places on that same day. very strange.

it's very weird, because it's not like you'll hear it every day for the rest of time. no, you hear about it multiple times immediately after learning about it, and then rarely if ever again.

Yes this

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Clench281 posted...

Recency illusion or bader meinhoff

Reddit agrees

https://www.healthline.com/health/baader-meinhof-phenomenon

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Lokarin posted...

Reddit agrees

https://www.healthline.com/health/baader-meinhof-phenomenon

I think though that there are times when that occurs, and it isn't just an illusion, but more of a coincidence.

I've had ones in particular where it went something like that I learned a new concept randomly from the internet (reading wiki or whatever), and then visited my mom's place and the random show she was watching it was mentioned, which already feels surprising and impossible, and then later that day, reading a couple more pages from the book I've been reading the last month, the concept is mentioned there two pages from where I was.

it feels impossible, but there's no reason why it should be. it's just very unlikely and will happen to someone somewhere eventually.

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here's an example, but only 1 additional occurrence, not multiple

watch a video, guy bought a BMW M2, so I read about BMW M cars. BMW is a German company, and the subsidiary that makes BMW M cars is BMW M GmbH. that's a lot of letters, but ok whatever.

few hours later, ok, guess I'll start playing the game I'm working on. out of the corner of my eye I notice the text GmbH on the launcher. that GmbH sure looks familiar... wait were those the letters of the BMW company? look it up... yes.

ok, so this game is made by Egosoft, which is a German company, and the company is named Egosoft GmbH. GmbH means Gesellschaft mit beschrnkter Haftung or basically "limited liability company", so LLC in English.

so yeah, complete coincidence that I was playing a german-made game at the same time I was reading about a german-made car company (neither of which I knew were german before today, I thought BMW was british). add one more occurrence and you have the really-weird version. I would have to happen to randomly see another GmbH company today or tomorrow though, which isn't likely.

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