'There It Is again!': The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
Imagine you decide to buy a new car — say, a red Hyundai. It's not one you've seen around much. But once you buy it, you suddenly start seeing red Hyundais everywhere.
Or say you learn a new word, and suddenly you start noticing that word in all sorts of places: books, conversations, social media.
"How have I never noticed this before?" you might think.
The good news is you're not going crazy. This is the frequency illusion — also referred to as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
It happens when something you've recently noticed or learned about seems to appear more frequently in your daily life.
But it's not actually appearing more frequently — you've just started to notice it more. Contrary to what your brain might tell you, there aren't more red Hyundais on the road.
The term first appeared in a letter written to a Minnesota newspaper in 1994. In the letter, the sender explained he'd been talking to a friend about the Baader-Meinhof Gang — a West German terrorist group — years after it stopped regularly appearing in the news.
But the next day, his friend told him about an article in that day's newspaper that mentioned the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
He called this strange coincidence the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
But why does it happen?
Well, our brains have a lot of information to take in every day. It's not possible for us to notice every single thing we see or hear, so our brains filter out the "extra" things that aren't important enough to focus on.
But when we're exposed to something new, especially if we think it's interesting, our brains will start noticing it more often.
The phenomenon is usually harmless. But experts say it's important to be aware of it, especially when it comes to things like scientific research or medical diagnoses.
But now that you do know about it, you'll probably be more aware of it anyway!
