This means we tend to find them even when they don’t exist, like when we think we’re enjoying a winning streak at the roulette table or seeing religious faces burned into toast. Each time we recognize a pattern, we are rewarded with a hit of dopamine. Our brains are evolutionary wired to search for patterns, and we are predisposed to find them. The fact is, it’s probably been around for ages we’ve just stopped ignoring it.Ĭompounding the problem is our inability to wrap our heads around the notion of randomness. The frequency illusion is often accompanied by the recency illusion, also coined by Zwicky, which is the belief that something we have noticed only recently is, in fact, recent. Now we notice it even more, and this confirms our belief that we really are seeing or hearing this new piece of information everywhere.īut this seems weird, so we rationalize it by telling ourselves that whatever it is that has caught our attention has suddenly popped up all over the place, and lots of people are discovering it at the same time. Because we think we’re seeing or hearing something over and over, we prioritize paying attention to that thing rather than to anything else. This is when the confirmation bias kicks in. When we are exposed to brand-new information that we find interesting, our brains take notice and start to look for more examples of this fascinating newly-learned information. We are constantly being subjected to a barrage of sensory data but it’s just not possible to take it all in, so our brains have developed the ability to focus attention on certain elements of our environment while filtering the rest out. Selective attention is what allows us to get through the day without suffering from information overload. The frequency illusion is the result of two interacting psychological biases - selective attention, noticing things that are (currently) important to us and disregarding the rest and confirmation bias, looking for information that supports our hypotheses and disregarding information that does not. Twelve years later, Arnold Swicky, professor of linguistics at Stanford University, coined the more scientifically accepted term, “the frequency illusion.” How it works Several other readers then shared that they’d had the same sort of experiences, and, for lack of a better term, the concept became known as Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Paul Pioneer Press’ online discussion board mentioning that he had been talking to a friend about the once-notorious West German terrorist Baader-Meinhof group that was active in the 1970s, and the next day his friend had referred him to an article in the newspaper in which the left-wing terrorist organization was mentioned, decades after it had any reason to be in the news. The first known report of the bias dates back to 1994, when Terry Mullen posted a comment on the St. The bias does not apply to things like popular movies or outfits, or hot topics in the news, just to more obscure things that you wouldn’t expect to see or hear about that often. The bias is also sometimes referred to as “red (or blue) car syndrome” in honor of people who have decided to buy a red (or blue) car to stand out from the crowd, only to find themselves surrounded by cars of the same color. In reality, it only seems to be everywhere because we’re noticing it more. The frequency illusion - also known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon - describes our tendency to notice something for the first time and then suddenly to see it everywhere, giving us the impression that it’s come from nowhere and taken over the world. What is this cognitive bias and why does it happen? What is the frequency illusion? In all likelihood, you are experiencing the frequency illusion. Could it be that you discovered the band just as it exploded on the scene? Probably not. In fact, you just can’t seem to get away from them. And now you’ve started seeing advertisements for the group’s new album everywhere you look. You heard a great song for the first time the other day and suddenly you’re hearing it everywhere you go - in the car, at the supermarket, at your best friend’s 4th of July barbecue. The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon - also known as the frequency illusion - describes our tendency to notice something for the first time and then suddenly to see it everywhere.
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