More accurately, an established phenomenon was given a definition that linked it to a what was indeed "lapse in memory" re: Mandela, helping to downplay every other instance of the phenomenon that has unfortunately been named after Mandela... some people will still insist that Mandela died in the 80s. I cannot personally speak to having any memories from the time, as I was not yet alive. My post 1980s memory has always been that Mandela was alive, but again, I can't speak to what may or may not have been said in the 1980s, and it would seem that some accounts indicate that there was a "rumor" that Mandela died, in the a similar manner to rumors about celebrities dying persist today... how many times was it reported that Betty White died?

But again, the "established definition" itself, is a fake definition, as it does not accurately describe the phenomenon. Unfortunately because of its common usage, the phenomenon and the name have stuck, to make it "easier" to communicate...

"Mandela Effect" is in the same category as "conspiracy" and "Qanon"

Riddle me this.... if the term "Mandela Effect" wasn't coined until 2009, as so many sources claim, then how does the term properly define a phenomenon that was already being discussed prior, as early as 2001?

https://youtu.be/4OdsejeZ-P0

The talk of time travel aside, the caller also remembered Robert Duvall (or is it Duval? 😉) having died. Regardless of whether or not her memory was accurate, why wasn't the phenomenon called the "Duval[l] Effect?" Why Mandela? Because some paranormal researcher decided as much?

Why was the prior term "false memory" just accepted? Because psychological pioneers Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud didn't believe that people had real memories because they didn't match up with their own memories or there lacked evidence to prove the claim?

What if the real manipulation is the assertion that the "science of psychology" has declared the phenomenon explained as misattribution or bad memory? "Your memory is bad. You're crazy. Shut up." Because yes, that's absolutely going to get thousands to change their minds 😉😂