Has this ever happened to you? Suppose that you decide to buy a car, and you have set your mind on a specific blue model. In the next few days, you see that blue colour wherever you go. It feels like suddenly, everyone is driving a car in that colour. This is known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also known as the frequency illusion or recency bias, is a cognitive bias in which, after becoming aware of something for the first time, people begin to notice it more often than they did before, leading to the illusion that it has a high frequency (hence frequency illusion).
The name “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon” is derived from an essay by Terry Mullen, who wrote in 1994 that he had noticed the name “Baader-Meinhof” after reading about it in the newspaper. He then began to see the name everywhere, including on license plates, in conversations, and in advertisements.
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is thought to be caused by a combination of factors, including:
* Selective attention: When we become aware of something new, we tend to pay more attention to it, which makes us more likely to notice it again.
* Confirmation bias: We are more likely to remember information that confirms our existing beliefs or expectations.
* Availability heuristic: We estimate the frequency of something by how easily we can think of examples of it.
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon can be a harmless quirk of human perception, but it can also be used to manipulate people. For example, advertisers may use the phenomenon to make us more aware of their products by placing them in our subconscious.
Here are some examples of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon:
* You hear a new song for the first time and then start to hear it everywhere.
* You see a new car model and then start to see it all over the place.
* You learn a new word and then start to see it in print.
* You start dating someone and then start to see people who look like them everywhere.
If you ever experience the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, remember that it is just a cognitive bias. The thing you are noticing is not actually happening more often, it is just that you are more aware of it.