There are not many scientific papers on frequency illusion, but the effect is very similar to the memory-driven work grab that was studied to understand how attention is directed. There are two reasons for this phenomenon: first, selective attention, which means that your brain is subconsciously looking for additional information on the subject. Second, confirmation bias, which means that every time you see something relevant to a topic, your brain tells you that it’s proof that the topic has caught on in the blink of an eye. One part is higher frequency perception; the second part is confirmation bias, where you feel like it hasn’t happened before with the same frequency. [Sources: 0, 3]
Every time you encounter it, it confirms that your perceptual frequency has increased, and you are more confident that you have been seeing it now. At the same time, you might have seen the same thing 20 times in the last week, but don’t remember why it didn’t pass the attention filter. The fact that you don’t remember can be interpreted as confirming that it didn’t happen, but it’s impossible to extract something from your memory that was not originally coded. [Sources: 17]
The illusion of novelty makes us think that what we have just noticed or learned is a recent phenomenon. The illusion of novelty. The illusion that the phenomenon was observed quite recently has arisen recently. Often used to refer to linguistic phenomena; the illusion that a word or linguistic usage that has only recently been noticed is an innovation when it has actually been established for some time (see also frequency illusion). [Sources: 13, 17]
Select deviation availability deviation. When something makes us know more about something, we tend to pay more attention to something. For example, when we buy a car, we tend to notice similar cars more frequently than before. Selective attention-the brain is very good at eliminating irrelevant information, so we suddenly notice and appear relevant information. In fact, we all process information selectively, even if we think it is not. Confirmation bias occurs when people selectively process information that confirms their beliefs while ignoring information that may challenge or provide evidence against these beliefs, instead of selectively focusing on any information in the environment that seems important or relevant. [Sources: 7, 13, 16]
In terms of confirming bias, people with schizophrenia can “confirm their suspicions” if they begin to pay attention to aspects of their experience that are consistent with the misconception they currently have. If you have certain mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or paranoia, frequency bias can lead you to believe things that are not true and make your symptoms worse. [Sources: 5, 10]
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon accessibility distortion frequency illusion is that once something is noticed, every instance of the object will be noticed, leading to the belief that it has a high frequency of occurrence (a selection bias). “The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also called frequency illusion or novelty deviation, is a situation where what you have learned recently seems to be suddenly everywhere. [Sources: 12, 13]
There are two reasons for this phenomenon: First, selective attention, which means that your brain is subconsciously looking for additional information on the subject. First, your brain seems to be excited about what you have learned, and selective attention is happening. [Sources: 3, 4]
According to Stanford linguist Arnold Zwicky, who coined the term “frequency illusion” for this phenomenon in 2006, there is more before your confirmation bias kicks in. When something new triggers an emotional response, your brain starts looking for something. was something that you actively noticed. [Sources: 9]
Suddenly, what you noticed for the first time in your life yesterday begins to appear out of nowhere, here and there, like a short deja vu on steroids. You will probably start to think that what just happened is supernatural, but it is not. However, there is nothing accidental about this, and the explanation is really simple. [Sources: 1, 9, 12]
The frequency illusion is a product of selective attention and confirmation bias, often with a hint of the illusion of novelty. This distorts your perception of frequency, making you think the frequency has changed. [Sources: 17]
The frequency illusion occurs when a person experiences something, for example, finds a song they like on Spotify or gets pregnant, and then believes that this experience or phenomenon is happening all the time. Basically, the illusion of frequency is the feeling that something that you have been thinking about or recently learned suddenly seems much more frequent in your environment than it used to be. The frequency illusion can overlap with social proof because if you hear people argue about something multiple times, seemingly out of the blue, you attribute that sudden attention to the importance of that particular thing. Once something grabs your attention, you are likely to notice almost every case you come across. [Sources: 0, 16, 17, 18]
Pattern recognition is important for many diagnoses, but frequency offset allows you to see patterns without patterns. There are always new things to learn, but they should beware of noticing a patient’s disease just because they have recently read about a certain disease. The scientific community is made up of people, so they are not immune to frequency deviations. [Sources: 10]
When this happens, it is easier to see evidence supporting bias when evidence against it is lacking. A bias can refer to an object, event, concept, idea, word, and so on. As soon as you find something that you didn’t know before, you start noticing it in the weirdest places. Zwicky defined the Frequency Illusion as before he notices … and then believes that something is happening. [Sources: 6, 7, 10]
If a detective trying to solve a crime learns about a certain suspicion through the frequency illusion, then the detective’s mind is ready to pay attention to this suspicion when new relevant information appears. Frequency illusion, also known as the Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon, is a cognitive bias that describes our tendency to see new information, names, ideas, or patterns everywhere as soon as they are brought to our attention. It was named Baader-Meinhoff after this curious psychological fact was first described by a reader of St Paul Pioneer Press. Having just heard about the far-left terrorist group Baader-Meinhoff in West Germany, he saw Baader-Meinhoff everywhere. [Sources: 5, 8]
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also known as frequency deviation (or illusion), is the recent concept of internalization (or attention) that has apparently appeared in unexpected places. The more popular term “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon” is the first online discussion after a commentator heard about the ultra-left terrorist organization Baader-Meinhof Gang (also known as the Red Army faction (RAF)) twice in 24 hours Use on forums. Named after the Baader-Meinhof Group (also known as the Red Army faction), this is a notorious West German radical leftist organization founded in 1970. [Sources: 2, 7, 9]
— Slimane Zouggari
##### Sources #####
[0]: https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/july-2020/What-is-the-Baader-Meinhof-Phenomenon
[1]: https://blog.yaware.com/frequency-illusion-or-why-some-words-are-chasing-us/
[2]: https://interestingengineering.com/experiencing-the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon
[3]: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/baader-meinhof-phenomenon
[4]: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/baader-meinhof-phenomenon.htm
[5]: https://news.ucdenver.edu/what-is-the-frequency-illusion/
[6]: https://productiveclub.com/baader-meinhof-phenomenon/
[7]: https://dqydj.com/baader-meinhof-phenomenon-frequency-bias/
[8]: https://medium.com/gravityblog/16-the-frequency-illusion-388d0a92cd81
[9]: https://doctorspin.org/media-psychology/psychology/baader-meinhof-phenomenon/
[10]: https://www.healthline.com/health/baader-meinhof-phenomenon
[11]: https://moviecultists.com/when-you-start-noticing-something-everywhere
[12]: https://www.adcellerant.com/2019/10/baader-meinhof-phenomenon-and-marketing/
[13]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
[14]: https://www.sciencealert.com/you-know-how-when-you-learn-a-new-word-you-see-it-everywhere-here-s-why
[15]: https://beyond.britannica.com/can-you-please-explain-the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon
[16]: https://web.colby.edu/cogblog/2018/04/24/that-band-is-really-cool-but-i-swear-its-everywhere/
[17]: https://mentalhealthathome.org/2021/12/03/what-is-frequency-illusion/
[18]: https://www.adzooma.com/blog/marketing-the-frequency-illusion/