Collective Memory
The memories a group holds in common, shaped by and shaping its members.
What it is
The idea comes from the sociology of memory and treats remembering as partly social. Hirst and Echterhoff describe how conversation between individuals, through contagion and selective retelling, spreads across social networks and helps form collective memories.
In effect
In the article on the Mandela effect, it is the frame in which a shared memory, accurate or not, is held by many people.
What it does not say
It is a framework, not a single testable effect, and it does not say that a group's shared memory is more or less accurate than an individual's.
Sources
- Hirst, W., & Echterhoff, G. (2012). Remembering in conversations: The social sharing and reshaping of memories. Annual Review of Psychology, 63(1), 55-79.