You Think You Know, but You Don’t Know

That snacking favorite of yours might not be exactly what you remember.

 “You think you know, but you don’t know.” An NFL coach gained notoriety for that quote, but it can apply to all of us, when we sincerely believe we hear or see or experience something in a way that, in actuality, we did not.

It happens more than you think.

Ever get into an argument about what really happened with a family member or an old schoolmate? More to the point, did you ever experience surprise over a major event that you, yourself, had misremembered? How can false memories seem so real? Yet they are.

It gets even more interesting when the phenomenon is a collective one. A misremembered fact gains a lot of traction when legions of people believe it at the same time. It’s kind of like a low-grade mass hallucination. It’s also known as the Mandela Effect.

Famous lines from movies are often misremembered, and provide a good example:

    • “Houston, we have a problem” is really “Ah, Houston, we had a problem.”

    • “Luke, I am your father” is really “No, I am your father.”

    • “Play it again, Sam,” is really “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By’.”

It doesn’t just have to be movies, though. Here are a few more examples:

    • Nelson Mandela did not die in prison in the 1980s, but for a long time people thought he did (hence the name of the effect).

    • The Fruit of the Loom logo does not have a cornucopia (horn of plenty) behind the fruit, and never did.

    • That little Monopoly man, Rich Uncle Pennybags, does not wear a monocle.

    • That funny monkey, Curious George, does not have a tail.

    • That rather playful Pokémon, Pikachu, does not have black on its tail.

Since we’re in the c-store business, it might be appropriate to finish this post up with a few false memories related to the merchandise on your shelves:

    • KitKat. Think it has a hyphen? Now you know that it doesn’t.

    • Froot Loops. There’s no place for the correct spelling of “Fruit” in such a fanciful cereal.

    • Double Stuf Oreos: There’s so much filling, they left out the room for a second “f.”

    • Febreze: Don’t think of it as a cooling “breeze”; it’s the scent coming out of your dryer!

    • Coca-Cola: If that looks spelled right, it’s because it is. But instead of a straight-on hyphen, people always seem to recall the separator as a tilde (~) or some other more stylish piece of punctuation. That’s never been the case.

If all this talk of false memories and misrecollections is making you feel a little adrift, may we suggest you concentrate on something unforgettable: growing your business and its profitability by putting SSCS Software to work for your c-store. As an additional benefit we’ll lock in all the item information in your inventory so there is never a question of what you are selling, for you or for your customers. Give us a call at (800) 927-7277 and we’ll show you how.