Understanding the Elusive Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

Have you ever experienced a situation where you learn about something new — an idea, a word, a product— and then start seeing it everywhere? This seemingly bizarre experience has a name: It's called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, sometimes referred to as 'frequency illusion' or 'recency illusion.' This term was coined by a commenter on the St. Paul Pioneer Press online discussion board in 1994, who decided to name the phenomenon after the polemic German left-wing militant group because he heard about them twice in one day. The scientific rationale behind this occurrence is still being discussed and theorized. However, researchers commonly believe this phenomenon is due to two cognitive processes. The first one is called 'selective attention,' which kicks in when you're struck by a new word, thing, or idea; after that first encounter, your brain subconsciously keeps an eye out for it, and as a result, you find that new thing almost everywhere. The second process at work is 'confirmation bias.' Every time we encounter that thing again, it reinforces our belief that it has increased in frequency. Stanford linguistics professor Arnold Zwicky coined these terms (Frequency Illusion) in 2006 while describing this fairly common mental predisposition. The weird proportionality between learning new things and recognizing them everywhere can feel like some sort of universal trickery, but when understood properly under a neuroscience lens, it can be quite revealing about how human memory works.