PhenomenonAttention & information · Availability Heuristic · Entry 11
Frequency Illusion – when something new suddenly appears everywhere
Did you recently learn about something and now it seems to be everywhere? That’s Frequency Illusion (also known as the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon) – a cognitive bias that makes us think something appears more frequently than before, when in reality we’ve just started noticing it.
Where it can show up
- Shopping – you learn about a new phone model, and suddenly everyone seems to have it.
- Names – you meet someone with a rare name, and now you hear it everywhere.
- Trends – you hear a new term, and suddenly it’s being used all around you (even though it was always there).
A practical countermeasure
- Recognize that your brain is playing tricks on you – things aren’t appearing more often, you’re just noticing them more.
- Focus on data, not feelings – if something seems more frequent, check the actual numbers.
- Be skeptical of your memory – just because something caught your attention doesn’t mean it became more common.
