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A Mandela effect that stuck with me was that North/South Korea were detached islands a bit south of Japan, but detached from China. That and the fact the US ha
by WingH 9y ago
A Mandela effect that stuck with me was that North/South Korea were detached islands a bit south of Japan, but detached from China.
That and the fact the US has 52 states not 50
- nsxwolf 9y agoIt’s only a Mandela effect if many people share the memory.
- pluma 9y agoThe "52 states" thing seems to be a common false memory: http://www.debunkingmandelaeffects.com/51-or-52-states-in-the-united-states-of-america/ http://www.debunkingmandelaeffects.com/51-or-52-states-in-th... Personally I also remember (as a child) thinking that the US had 52 states but that's mostly because "51st state" is a common expression I likely came across frequently enough to think that there are at least 51 states, 50 feeling too rounded and 52 being a close enough number that frequently pops up elsewhere (52 cards in a deck, weeks in a year). I don't like the term "Mandela effect" because of the pseudo-scientific connotations, though. It's just a false memory and in many cases it's not even a memory, just a misconception (like thinking there are penguins at the North Pole because it's easy to mix up the Arctic and Antarctic or to mistake puffins for some kind of penguin). EDIT: As for Korea: googling yields several claims of people misremembering its placement on the map but if I had to guess I'd blame news reports that like to highlight countries on the map by showing them in isolation or exaggerating their borders by creating a small gap around them.