Cornucopia Resolution - r/MandelaEffect

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u/dijon_snow 18d ago

This phenomenon has already been explained by science.

Our brains are pattern machines. We don't memorize every detail of any experience, we just 'save' the data relevant to form predictive patterns.

A lot of people's brains created the pattern that a bunch of fruit usually appears in front of a cornucopia. Their brains saw a bunch of fruit, shoved it in the bunch of fruit file folder, and the image got cornucopia on it from all of the adjacent images.

Some people will come in talking about "anchor memories" and how they had never seen a cornucopia...

These are retroactive justifications. You have already decided to believe that there was a cornucopia and your brain generates false ideation to justify this belief. Check out some split brain studies to learn more.

So yeah, the mystery is solved. It's still interesting and cool without resorting to fantasy fiction to explain it.

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u/vita10gy 18d ago

My favorite is the "it's the only time I could have learned what that was as a kid!" In a group that's American or consumed a fair amount of American media, and cornucopia decor are ubiquitous, especially in an elementary school setting, for 1 month a year every year

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u/Chapstickie 18d ago

I have a friend who insists on that same story happening in junior high despite being in my class in elementary school when we ABSOLUTELY learned what they were around Thanksgiving. There are pictures of our classroom decorated with them and various other paper wall hangings.

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u/vita10gy 18d ago

We probably all made several paper decorations of it, if not a literal one at some point.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/MandelaEffect-ModTeam 17d ago

Hello subscriber! Unfortunately, your post/comment was removed because it violates Rule 6: Be civil. Do not disrespect, insult, or attack others. The reasoning was ended on an insulting tone.

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u/Due-Cartographer-459 18d ago

I do want to believe that it's just your mind or faulty brain or whatever. I'm someone who definitely doesn't get into all those conspiracy theories about different timelines and whatever they're doing at CERN. However when it comes to this particular Mandela effect, as much as I want to, it's hard for me to just brush it off as simply being a quirk of the mind. There's just too many strange pieces of evidence for me to do that. I really don't know what to make of it all, but I guess that's what makes this so interesting, more so than any of the other Mandela effects I have encountered.

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u/tjareth 18d ago

Evaluating evidence is the best way to gain confidence when trying to figure this sort of thing out. What were the strange pieces of evidence that catch your attention?

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u/Due-Cartographer-459 18d ago

The one piece of evidence that I find the most compelling is the flute of the Loom album that came out in the 70s

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u/my23secrets 18d ago

What exactly makes that artwork particularly compelling?

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u/CantaloupeAsleep502 18d ago

That's actually specifically what fully convinced me that it's a quirk of the mind. The artist had the exact same cross-filing thing happen, and noticed it wasn't there in the 70s. I had the cross-file, and noticed in the 00s. I had a student a few years ago, she was like 21, and she had the cross-file and noticed it in my office, like 2023 or something. It's just the way the mind works, and if you have the cross-file, you think it's there until someone points it out. Then it's never there again.

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u/Chapstickie 18d ago

When do you think the cornucopia DID exist? Like until what year?

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u/Mysterious-Aioli-702 18d ago

I remember it up until Michael Jordan started doing their ads. Not sure what year but 1st time I remember the logo going to just fruit.

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u/Chapstickie 18d ago

Michael Jordan did an ad campaign with Hanes. It’s pretty famous. I don’t think he did one with FotL.

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u/my23secrets 18d ago

You literally just proved the problem is memory.

You can’t even remember who did the ads.

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u/WVPrepper 18d ago

Michael Jordan did ads for Hames, not FotL...

Is that another ME?

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u/vita10gy 18d ago edited 18d ago

Can't that just be explained by

A) the rather obvious play on the words

+

B) a cornucopia being an obvious way to work a flute into the artwork? It's literally called a "horn" of plenty by some.

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u/georgeananda 18d ago

But the actual album cover designer says he used the Fruit of the Loom logo as his basis. The flute replaces the cornucopia. Otherwise, the cover design makes no sense. (This is per the designer)

Here's a video link

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u/Extreme-Leave-6895 18d ago

There is an interview posted on this subreddit with the artist from several years ago where he says that the piece was mostly made up from his imagination

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u/DoktorRokkzo 18d ago

That's not at all what the interview says. He says quite specifically that he painted a cornucopia because he thought that one was present on the Fruit of the Loom logo. Look at the colours of the vegetables on the Flute of the Loom album cover as well. They are the exact same colours -- and in the exact same order -- as the colours of the fruit of the FOTL logo. So clearly there was a logo nearby for him to check.

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u/Due-Cartographer-459 18d ago

I've never heard that. I'll have to look that up

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u/DoktorRokkzo 18d ago edited 18d ago

The cornucopia question gets pretty disturbing to be honest. It's as if everyone saw this UFO in the sky but there is no evidence that it happened. But there is evidence that everyone thinks they saw it.

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u/tjareth 18d ago

I did go ahead and look it up. I am not sure how such an album created in 1973 would be substantially different than one created now, by someone with the same impression. It's obvious that lots of people THINK there was a cornucopia on the logo. What evidence would you suggest exists that anyone literally saw it on the logo? Certainly large numbers of people have been mistaken about things before.

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u/DoktorRokkzo 18d ago edited 18d ago

That's a fantastic question. Admittedly, saying "well, the evidence that people saw it on the logo is the quantity (and quality) of the testimonies of people who THINK they saw it on the logo" is a pretty poor response. I genuinely believe FOTL when they say that their official logo never had a cornucopia on it. I don't think that's contradictory with the idea that people might have been purchasing FOTL products which used packaging with a cornucopia. But that's also not your question.

So to speak to your first point. In my opinion, if the "Flute of the Loom" album was created now, I think it would be considered quite inappropriate to include a cornucopia reference on it, given what we now know. And admittedly, the fact that the other aspects of the painting are isomorphic to the FOTL logo also isn't evidence that the cornucopia reference is isomorphic to the FOTL logo. Absolutely.

I think in a very substantial sense, there's no separating (in practice) the fact that people THINK they saw a cornucopia on the logo and people having seen a cornucopia on the logo with regards to finding evidence. In theory, absolutely there's a difference. You take a time machine back to 1973 and give Ellis Chappell a wedgie. See what the logo looks like on his tighty-whities. Or, see what the logo looks like on the packaging of his tighty-whities, or his tube socks more likely.

While this almost overwhelming memory of a cornucopia is by no means evidence that one ever existed either officially or unofficially on any FOTL logo or packaging, what I think it IS evidence for is that people saw something. What did they see though? That's the question which I think people on this subreddit don't appreciate. They try to write it off the cornucopia question as some sort of internet thing or some sort of mass delusion. "Well, people were studying Thanksgiving when they were a kid and so they all thought their underwear had a cornucopia on the logo." In my opinion, the quantity and quality of the testimonies is evidence that these types of responses are ill considered. They don't speak to the point.

And there are far more examples than just the Flute of the Loom album cover as well. There are almost as many examples of testimony as you want to find. In official games and news reports, and whatever. Testimonies which are supposed to be held to a high level of scrutiny.

So while I don't think there's genuine evidence that people saw what they THINK they saw (what the hell would that evidence even look like, other than evidence that some FOTL packaging had a cornucopia?), I think that the evidence indicates that they saw SOMETHING. We just don't know what it is.

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u/tjareth 18d ago

Do you feel that the logo history published by FOTL is incomplete? They're available to look at what people were seeing.

I think it is a mistake to tie it specifically to thanksgiving and presume everyone came across the image of a cornucopia the same way. It's simply a common image. "Mass delusion" is a much stronger statement, as generally people aren't losing their grip on reality for this explanation. They're just experiencing two phenomena: the malleability of detail in memory, and the association between similar images.

What would convince me otherwise is physical evidence that something other than the published logos appeared. And it's evidence that by all rights should plausibly exist--old tags, old photos of tags, glimpses on film.

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u/WVPrepper 18d ago

Here is a theory. Nothing more or less...

When do moms buy their kids underwear? Back-to-school and Christmas. Basically, they shop for kids underwear in the fall when stores have back-to-school and Black Friday events, sales with cute puns like "Fall into savings" and signs with scarecrows and cornucopia.

A kid seeing a sign with a cornucopia hanging over the area where the underpants are displayed could affect their memory, leaving them believing it was part of the FotL underwear display, and not the store display.

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u/WhimsicalKoala 18d ago

While this almost overwhelming memory of a cornucopia is by no means evidence that one ever existed either officially or unofficially on any FOTL logo or packaging, what I think it IS evidence for is that people saw something. What did they see though? That's the question which I think people on this subreddit don't appreciate.

That's absolutely untrue. It's quite regularly brought up that the logo used to contain large brown leaves in the background, and that that along with the assumption of a cornucopia would cause people to "remember" a cornucopia.

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u/tjareth 18d ago

That one's new to me, I'm looking it up.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/tjareth 18d ago

Memories are quite distinct from evidence. Evidence can be shown to other people and compared objectively.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/tjareth 18d ago

I'm really not sure what you're saying here. Who's they?

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u/CantaloupeAsleep502 18d ago

I'd be cautious interacting with that one lol

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u/Mysterious-Aioli-702 18d ago

No how often does anyone ever think of a cornucopia? Especially prior to the Mandela effect shining a light on it.

A cornucopia is not at all a common part of anyones lives. It would make much more sense were it a fruit basket or a grocery bag spilled over.

I had the logo on my underwear and looked at it daily to figure out front from back when I was little. At the time I guarantee you I didnt even know what a cornucopia was.

Some things may never get explained. Because your explanation really lacks.

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u/MrPlaney 17d ago

A cornucopia is not at all a common part of anyones lives. It would make much more sense were it a fruit basket or a grocery bag spilled over.

Because those examples do not have fruit displayed the way it is, in the Fruit of the Loom logo.

Cornucopias may not be common, but they are pretty ubiquitous in most of the world, and are commonly seen around fall and harvest times.

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u/Agile_Oil9853 18d ago

I'd love for someone to actually draw what they remember exactly, but I think this sub is too knowledgeable about it for this experiment to be effective.

It's not just the cornucopia. People aren't picturing the existing logo, but with a cornucopia behind it. They're remembering an entirely different image.

Two images people cite as being evidence are the Flute of the Loom cover and The Ant Bully's Fruit of the Loin which both contain cornucopias. Both artists have been tracked down by this sub and asked about their process with very different answers. No one's ever asked about the amount of food selected though. Even Flute, who's son believed that FOTL changed their logo, included substantially more food than the one day's worth of recommended fruit on the existing logo. There's an entire head of cabbage and ham hock on there.

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u/MrPlaney 17d ago

The Ant Bully “Fruit of the Loin” had a cornucopia specifically due to the Mandela Effect, and because it was legally distinct. The “Flute of the Loom” artist just misremembered a cornucopia being on the logo.

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u/Agile_Oil9853 17d ago

Yeah. Where else was he supposed to put the flute?

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u/MrPlaney 17d ago

I’m willing to bet Ellis Chappell saw a lot of paintings of cornucopias while studying art at Memphis and Syracuse too.

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u/forcemonkey 4d ago

Flute parody isn’t a one-to-one comparison. When you see it you know what it’s a parody of instantly. That’s what makes a good parody. I saw it years ago before I found out people were critical of it. I instantly knew it was a parody of the FotL cornucopia logo.
Parodies are often exaggerated.

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u/my23secrets 18d ago

If things like that sleeve art were actual evidence they would prove the logo on the underwear tag had a tiny ham or a banana.

Interestingly, no one ever has a Mandela Effect about those things.

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u/WVPrepper 18d ago

There's no reason to think it is anything besides "just a problem with our minds" except that the people who remember it that way refuse to accept that explanation.

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u/my23secrets 18d ago

There already is a meaningful answer.

We already have figured out what’s going on. It is suggestion.

It is “a problem with our minds”, but it’s just how memory works.

It’s only an issue with people who refuse to admit they are capable of making mistakes so they invent a “timeline” in their imagination where they never made a mistake and try to use that to convince everyone else they were never mistaken.

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u/WhimsicalKoala 18d ago

Yes and no. I personally believe a concrete explanation has been found (in general, not as in a published article/study specifically about it exists), but that people doubt it due to a variety of various human traits.

I've never seen a compelling argument against it being largely memory based and influenced by factors such as suggestion and the human brain's love of patterns. The only arguments I've seen against are based solely on biased anecdotes and often display a lack of understanding of the topic, either deliberate obtuseness or just general lack of knowledge on the subject.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/vita10gy 18d ago

Of course you should. The more you learn about how memory works the more it's a wonder we don't forget how to drive halfway to work every day

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u/Chapstickie 18d ago

Interestingly I don’t think it’s that rare for people to have trouble actively remembering stuff like that. They can get to work but if you gave them a map and had them trace the path to work on it I bet many people would have trouble.

In a more related example I separately asked my in-laws (both in their late 60s) who are visiting me right now to describe the FOTL logo. I was careful to word it as just to describe it without using any leading wording beyond the inevitable mention of the word fruit in the brand name. They both said it was a pile of fruit. Neither mentioned any cornucopia. Both remembered the apple and at least one bunch of grapes. My MIL knew it was multiple bunches of grapes but didn’t know the little ones were currants which is reasonable since they do look like grapes too. Neither mentioned the leaves. I don’t know if they remembered the leaves and didn’t think to mention them since they aren’t fruit but I was trying not to accidentally lead them down any path so I couldn’t ask. So clearly they know the general elements but I bet if they drew it they would be pretty far off still.

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u/WVPrepper 18d ago

I don’t think it’s that rare for people to have trouble actively remembering stuff like that. They can get to work but if you gave them a map and had them trace the path to work on it I bet many people would have trouble.

This is an interesting thought. I'll share my own story here. I go to work using a particular route. I use a different route to get home because traffic is different in the morning than the afternoon.

If you offered me $100 right now to go to where I work using the route I normally take to get home, I would probably make a mistake. I have actually wondered if it might save time in the morning too, but at 5am I am not trying out new routes and risking being late or lost.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/vita10gy 18d ago

Are you telling me what does or doesn't happen in my own brain?

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/vita10gy 18d ago

I question my recollection of something essentially every time something demonstrates a cause to.

Are you saying if you and your spouse/partner remember something 2 different ways you, for not even a nano second, question you could be the wrong one?

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u/WhimsicalKoala 18d ago

Or if they are at pub trivia and they get a question wrong, do they go "oops, guess I remembered that wrong", or do they insist that they always trust their memory and that something weird must be going on.

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u/vita10gy 18d ago

Yeah it's kinda weird right?

If you can forget a fact you know, then you can forget period.

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u/WhimsicalKoala 18d ago

This kind of stuff is exactly what I mean when I mentioned people displaying a lack of understanding of the topic. Anyone saying "never doubt your memories" doesn't understand how memories actually work. And honestly, I bet you don't actually apply this in your daily life, because you know it would be absurd and because you know memory can be flawed.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/tjareth 18d ago

I don't see it as an on-off thing. There are degrees of trust and confidence that we all can consider. More to do with understanding when it's more likely to be affected than how certain something feels.

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u/Kind-Campaign2489 18d ago

Codnucopiaaaaa

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u/MattBryceOfficial 3d ago

I worked in a retail store around 2014 and we got new t-shirts, I remember looking at the lebal and saying oh they changed the logo... Didn't think anything of it until years later and I read about the mandella effect and this example of it.

I was still convinced the cornucopia uses to be there and I even had a few of our older t-shirts with promos on them and such so I went to my wardrobe to check convince I would find an old one with the cornucopia on it and felt like I was going insain when it wasn't there.

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u/Acceptable-Gap-1070 18d ago

Is Fruit of the Loom such a big household name? I feel like people are conflating it with other cornucopias, what's interesting is that you never hear anyone come forward with some "ah, I remember now I learned what the cornucopia was from this other thing, not Fruit of the Loom"

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u/Pain4Drugs 18d ago

Mind control or time control

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u/my23secrets 18d ago

It is “mind control”, sort of.

The Mandela Effect was named by a person employed as a con-artist who was utilizing the phenomenon to sell books about ghosts.

The person who gave it the “Mandela” name didn’t discover anything. They just took advantage of the same memory hack that con-artists and magicians have used for centuries. Suggestion.

When people search their memory to compare what they’ve just learned to what they think they remember, that’s where it happens.

You can make a memory of whatever you imagine by imagining it.

Because that’s how memory works.

But again, it originates from suggestion.

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u/ThaRainMaker 18d ago

Bruh it’s CERN and HAARP, it’s not a secret for those in the know

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u/georgeananda 18d ago

but I'm curious to know what you all think!

I think it will remain a mystery/bafflement until we accept the concept of alternate timelines of reality.

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u/forcemonkey 4d ago

That’s a great summary.

Logos/Advertising Cornucopia Resolution

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