second speech

Informative Speech Outline

Topic: The Mandela Effect

Type: Concept

Organizational Pattern: Topical

I. Introduction

A. Attention getter: I’m sure many of you love Star wars right? And who could forget the famous Darth Vader line, “Luke, I am your father”… well actually the line was never that and was in fact “No, I am your father” though most of us would disagree.

B. Brief background to topic: Well this is actually a prime example of a psychological theory called the Mandela Effect.

C. Audience Relevance: Though this is just a theory, Its important to learn about the causes of psychological falsities that could be causing our brains to have the memory altering results of the Mandela Effect. Such as, false memories, confabulation, or priming.

D. Thesis: The Mandela Effect is more than an Internet meme, and in actuality is the cause of actual psychological events that might alter the way we remember a lot of things from our childhoods.

E. Preview of Main Points: Today I’m going to be talking to you about what the Mandela effect is and how Nelson Mandela’s death was the event that created this theory, as well as some psychological background to give you a better understanding of the science behind this, and also give you some examples of this effect in today’s society.

Transition to first main point: But now that that’s out of the way, lets get into the actual definition of the Mandela Effect and how it all started!

II. Main Point 1:

A. So the Mandela Effect is when a large group of people all remember an event occurring when in reality it never did. What actually started this theory revolved around the death of the former South African president Nelson Mandela. In an article found on theconversation.com, published in 2018 and written by Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Cognitive and Parapsychology, Ken Drinkwater, “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”. Yet millions of people to this day still recall his 2013 funeral in full detail, yet there are history books that state otherwise.

B. Though at first, many people believed that this theory was exactly that.. just a theory with no science to back it up. So it then became a major joke/ meme phenomenon of the internet as hundreds of people began posting more events that they could’ve sworn appeared or happened one way but after entering it in Google, were 100% mistaken.

Transition to 2nd main point: So now that I’ve explained to you the origin of the Mandela effect, I will now hopefully clear some of your doubts with some science behind this theory.

III. Main Point 2:

A. There a few ways that psychologists have been trying to explain the mystery that is the Mandela effect, but the main one is false memory. In an article on verywellmind.com, published on April 29, 2019 by Arlin Cuncic, whose an author and has an MA in clinical psychology, explained that false memory is “When memories are recalled, rather than remembered perfectly, they are influenced to the point that they can eventually become incorrect. In this way, memory is unreliable and not infallible”. A lot of this is aimed at the role of the internet as the one to blame for the influencing and spread of false information. But science still has a lot theories.

B. For instance, have you ever wished for a scenario to have happen a specific way for so long that after a while you yourself start to forget the actual outcome? Well if you have the scientific term for it is called Confabulation, and its also used to try to explain the Mandela effect. As explained in an article found on verywellmind.com, published on March 10 2019, written by Kendra Cherry, an author that focuses on psychology with a Master of Science in education, “Confabulation is a type of memory error in which gaps in memory are unconsciously filled with fabricated, misinterpreted, or distorted information”. Which scientists believe we are doing for past events, branding, and movie quotes, thus fueling The Mandela Effect with our imagination.

Transition to 3rd main point: Now that I’ve talked you through just a few of the hundreds of theories supporting the Mandela effect, I’m now going to try to jog your memories with some examples that may have occurred differently than you remember.

IV. Main Point 3:

A. Like the Darth Vader quote I talked about earlier, many other things are falsely recalled about the movie industry, such as titles! One of the most famous rom coms ever, Sex in the City that came out in 1998, but is actually Sex and the City. To prove the theory even more there are even some photos of people holding dvds with the “faulty title”. Or what about everyone’s favorite guy Forrest Gump, one of his most memorable lines was “ Life is like a box a chocolates”… or was it? People later found out that it was actually “ Life was like a box of chocolates”… doesn’t have the same ring to it, I know.

B. . But food is something we consume an unhealthy amount of everyday, so you’d think that would help us remember it better right? Like Kit kat’s chocolate! Yet many of us remember the title on the wrapper Kit – Kat but in fact there’s no dash and its just plain old kit kat. But as a proud PCC student, one of my favorite fast foods is Chik- Fil- A! You’d think it was Chik… but in reality its Chic! Just like how the cereal Fruit Loops is actually spelled F-r-o-o-t Loops instead of F-r-u-i-t.. like a normal word.

Transition into conclusion: But though I could list 100 more common day examples of the Mandela effect , ill hold for now and instead review what we’ve talked about so far.

V. Conclusion:

A. Restate thesis: So as I said the Mandela Effect is more than an Internet meme, and in actuality is the cause of actual psychological events that might alter the way we remember a lot of things from our childhoods.

B. Review main points: I discussed what the Mandela effect is as well as what event gave it its name. I also gave you some brief theories that psychologists are using to try to explain this concept, but also gave you some of the many examples how the Mandela effect has morphed some of the things we thought we knew best.

C. Memorable Closer: So the next time you’re playing with light sabers or eating your favorite cereal, make sure to take a closer look because sometimes things arnt always how you remembered them!

Work Cited