The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon: Heard About It Before?

Ever heard of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon?

Well, the chances are that you’ll hear about it again soon.

The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on (also known as “fre­quency illu­sion”) is when you notice some­thing, per­haps some­thing out of the ordin­ary, like com­ing across an unusu­al name, hear­ing a song, or learn­ing the name of an act­or you have nev­er seen before.

Suddenly, that thing you noticed for the first time just yes­ter­day star­ted appear­ing from nowhere, both here and there, like some short-term déjà vu.

What’s going on here?

The Brain’s Quest for Novelty

Most of us have exper­i­enced the Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on — I know I have.

I exper­i­ence it all the time.
And that’s not an exaggeration.

Since I’m not super­sti­tious, I’ve always taken for gran­ted that it has some­thing to do with a psy­cho­lo­gic­al fal­lacy or bias — like con­firm­a­tion bias. ¹Confirmation bias. (2023, December 6). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​C​o​n​f​i​r​m​a​t​i​o​n​_​b​ias

However, con­firm­a­tion bias, a widely known and well-stud­ied psy­cho­lo­gic­al fal­lacy, doesn’t account for the whole exper­i­ence of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.

Let’s say that I walk by a store, and from with­in that store; I hear a rather unusu­al song from the ’80s that I haven’t heard in ages. I used to love it, but I had for­got­ten about it.

I hear the song repeatedly in the fol­low­ing weeks — and always by chance. How weird.

Suppose we were to explain these occur­rences using the fal­lacy of con­firm­a­tion bias alone. In that case, we must con­clude that I’ve always encountered this rel­at­ively rare song from the ’80s without con­sciously noti­cing it.

But how can that be — espe­cially if the song is rel­at­ively obscure?

The Frequency Illusion

According to Stanford lin­guist pro­fess­or Arnold Zwicky, who coined the term fre­quency illu­sion for this phe­nomen­on in 2006, some­thing else hap­pens before your con­firm­a­tion bias kicks in. ²Many would say that Arnold Zwicky is one of the most influ­en­tial lin­guists in the United States, if not the world. After receiv­ing his PhD in Linguistics from Stanford in 1955, he began teach­ing at … Continue read­ing

When some­thing nov­el sparks an emo­tion­al reac­tion, your brain act­ively scans for what you notice. Unconsciously, your brain is act­ively seek­ing that song — wherever you go.

How does the Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on affect us?

The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on made it into the open inter­net and has become pecu­li­ar. It could fuel para­noia and oth­er unhealthy states if you have a men­tal illness. 

But there are pos­it­ive examples, too.

“In 2019, third-year med­ic­al stu­dent Kush Purohit wrote a let­ter to the edit­or of Academic Radiology to talk about his own exper­i­ence. Having just learned of a con­di­tion called “bovine aor­tic arch,” he went on to dis­cov­er three more cases with­in the next 24 hours. Purohit sug­ges­ted that tak­ing advant­age of psy­cho­lo­gic­al phe­nom­ena such as Baader-Meinhof could bene­fit stu­dents of radi­ology, help­ing them to learn basic search pat­terns as well as the skills to identi­fy find­ings that oth­ers may over­look.”
Source: Healthline

The German Terrorist Group

Why do we call it the Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on and not the fre­quency effect?

A com­menter in the St. Paul Pioneer Press online for­um used the more pop­u­lar term Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on after hear­ing about the ultra-left-wing ter­ror­ist group Baader-Meinhof Gang, also known as the Red Army Faction (RAF), twice in 24 hours. ³In the 1970s, a rad­ic­al group called the Baader-Meinhof Gang wreaked hav­oc in West Germany. Led by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, the group sought to bring about drastic social and polit­ic­al … Continue read­ing

The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on has noth­ing to do with the ter­ror­ist group that wreaked hav­oc in Germany in the ’70s. One could make the case that it’s not ideal to ref­er­ence a group of ter­ror­ists. The phe­nomen­on could have as well have been named any­thing else. But it stuck.

Perceiving Patterns Amidst the Noise

So, what about that obscure song from the ’80s, then? The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on, the cog­nit­ive bias that impacts our per­cep­tion of fre­quency, might be at play. 

Our brains are con­stantly scan­ning for new and recently dis­covered stim­uli. In the pro­cess, we may encounter hun­dreds of poten­tial instances of the Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on over a week. However, only a hand­ful of these instances will resur­face with­in that time frame. This select­ive per­cep­tion can be attrib­uted to our brain’s inher­ent desire for nov­elty and abil­ity to sub­con­sciously fil­ter out less per­tin­ent information.

The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on kicks in when we notice a pat­tern, such as hear­ing the same obscure song repeatedly. Our brains focus on this spe­cif­ic stim­u­lus, mak­ing it seem as though we are encoun­ter­ing it more fre­quently than before. In real­ity, the song may have been play­ing in the back­ground of our lives all along, but we failed to notice it until our atten­tion was drawn to it.

As we nav­ig­ate our lives, our brains sub­con­sciously fil­ter out inform­a­tion that does not imme­di­ately per­tain to our interests or exper­i­ences. This cog­nit­ive fil­ter­ing plays a crit­ic­al role in the Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on, allow­ing us to hone in on spe­cif­ic stim­uli while dis­reg­ard­ing oth­ers. Consequently, we may per­ceive that we encounter cer­tain instances of the phe­nomen­on more fre­quently than oth­ers, even though they may all be equally pre­val­ent in our lives.

Cognitive Filtering and Its Impact on Perception

We live in an inter­con­nec­ted soci­ety. We shouldn’t under­es­tim­ate the chaot­ic net­work effects.

Maybe many people in your area heard that same song on the radio that day. Maybe lots of them reacted in the same way I did.

There’s a pos­sib­il­ity that your ini­tial feel­ing indeed is right; a tiny spark could lead to a but­ter­fly effect and increase the like­li­hood of you encoun­ter­ing the same thing soon again due to this spread­ing chain of events. ⁴We all get caught by cook­ies while search­ing for vari­ous web pages. And we’ve crossed paths on this par­tic­u­lar web page, right? Without noti­cing it, algorithms might amp­li­fy the Baader-Meinhof … Continue read­ing

The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on, a fas­cin­at­ing cog­nit­ive bias, influ­ences our per­cep­tion of fre­quency and pre­val­ence, often leav­ing us with the impres­sion that we encounter newly dis­covered stim­uli more often than we do. 

By under­stand­ing the under­ly­ing mech­an­isms of this phe­nomen­on, we can bet­ter appre­ci­ate the com­plex work­ings of our brains and the subtle ways in which cog­nit­ive biases shape our per­cep­tion of reality.

The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

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The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on, also known as the “fre­quency illu­sion” or “recency bias,” occurs when some­thing you have recently noticed or exper­i­enced crops sud­denly up repeatedly in your daily life.

This cog­nit­ive bias could affect your decision-mak­ing and perception:

• After pur­chas­ing a new product or ser­vice: When you pur­chase a new product or ser­vice, you may sud­denly start noti­cing it every­where. This heightened aware­ness can be attrib­uted to the Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on. Being con­scious of this cog­nit­ive bias will help you main­tain a bal­anced per­spect­ive and avoid over­es­tim­at­ing the pop­ular­ity of your purchase.
• Learning a new concept or term: Upon encoun­ter­ing a new concept or term, you may find it repeatedly appear­ing in con­ver­sa­tions, art­icles, or present­a­tions. This fre­quency illu­sion res­ults from increased aware­ness and atten­tion to the new inform­a­tion. Recognizing the Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on in this con­text can pre­vent you from over­em­phas­iz­ing its import­ance or assum­ing it is more widely known than it is.
• Adopting new man­age­ment prac­tices: When embra­cing new man­age­ment tech­niques, you might feel that they sud­denly become the top­ic of con­ver­sa­tion in your industry. The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on can cause you to over­es­tim­ate the pre­val­ence and effect­ive­ness of these prac­tices. Awareness of this bias helps main­tain a bal­anced view and encour­ages fur­ther explor­a­tion of altern­at­ive methods.
• Trendspotting in mar­ket research: The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on can lead ana­lysts to over­es­tim­ate the sig­ni­fic­ance of emer­ging trends. As a res­ult, com­pan­ies may invest in less influ­en­tial trends than anti­cip­ated. By acknow­ledging the pres­ence of this cog­nit­ive bias, research­ers can mit­ig­ate its impact and make more informed decisions.
• Networking and build­ing pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ships: When you meet someone new, you may feel that their name or com­pany appears in your circles more fre­quently. The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on can cre­ate a false sense of con­nec­tion or import­ance, poten­tially influ­en­cing your pro­fes­sion­al decisions. Awareness of this cog­nit­ive bias can help you make object­ive assess­ments when build­ing rela­tion­ships and eval­u­at­ing partnerships.

The Baader-Meinhof phe­nomen­on is a com­mon cog­nit­ive bias that affects our per­cep­tion of fre­quency and pre­val­ence. By recog­niz­ing its pres­ence in vari­ous aspects of life, indi­vidu­als and organ­iz­a­tions can make more informed decisions, main­tain a bal­anced per­spect­ive, and avoid over­em­phas­iz­ing the import­ance of newly acquired information.

Learn more: The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

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PR Resource: Free Psychology PR Course

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Doctor Spin’s PR School: Free Psychology PR Course

Join this free Psychology PR Course to learn essen­tial skills tailored for pub­lic rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als. Start now and amp­li­fy your impact on soci­ety today.

• 58 Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases
• Social Group Sizes (The Social Brain Hypothesis)
• The Pitfalls of Groupthink: Decision-Making in Organisations
• Cognitive Dissonance: Mental Harmony Above All Else
• Survivorship Bias — Abraham Wald and the WWII Airplanes
• The Engagement Pyramid (The 90−9−1 Principle)
• 150 — Dunbar’s Number
• Theory of Mind: A Superpower for PR Professionals
• The Amplification Hypothesis: Counter Extreme Arguments
• The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon: Heard About It Before?
• The Halo Effect: Why Attractiveness Matters in PR
• Parkinson’s Law & The Law of Triviality (Bike Shed Effect)
• Diffusion of Innovations

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

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PR Resource: The Anatomy of Attention

“There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
— Oscar Wilde

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The Anatomy of Attention

Attention is an essen­tial com­pon­ent of pub­lic relations:

• An organ­isa­tion, starved of atten­tion, trust, and loy­alty, is com­pelled to wage a per­petu­al struggle for its con­tin­ued existence.

And it’s not just organ­isa­tions. We all seem to crave atten­tion in some form or another:

“People want to be loved; fail­ing that admired; fail­ing that feared; fail­ing that hated and des­pised. They want to evoke some sort of sen­ti­ment. The soul shud­ders before obli­vi­on and seeks con­nec­tion at any price.”
— Hjalmar Söderberg (1869−1941), Swedish author

It’s fear of social isol­a­tion— and atten­tion star­va­tion.

But what con­sti­tutes ‘atten­tion’?

“Attention is a com­plex, real neur­al archi­tec­ture (‘RNA’) mod­el that integ­rates vari­ous cog­nit­ive mod­els and brain cen­ters to per­form tasks like visu­al search.”
Source: Trends in cog­nit­ive sci­ences ⁵Shipp, S. (2004). The brain cir­cuitry of atten­tion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 223 – 230. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​j​.​t​i​c​s​.​2​0​0​4​.​0​3​.​004

Each of the below terms refers to a spe­cif­ic aspect or type of atten­tion (“men­tal band­width”), a com­plex cog­nit­ive pro­cess. ⁶Schweizer, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Goldhammer, F. (2005). The struc­ture of the rela­tion­ship between atten­tion and intel­li­gence. Intelligence, 33(6), 589 – 611. … Continue read­ing

Let’s explore dif­fer­ent types of attention:

• Alertness. This is the state of being watch­ful and ready to respond. It’s the most basic form of atten­tion, rep­res­ent­ing our read­i­ness to per­ceive and pro­cess inform­a­tion from the environment.
• Sustained atten­tion. This involves focus­ing on a spe­cif­ic task or stim­u­lus over a pro­longed peri­od. It’s cru­cial for tasks that require ongo­ing con­cen­tra­tion, like read­ing or driving.
• Focused atten­tion. This refers to the abil­ity to con­cen­trate on one par­tic­u­lar stim­u­lus or task while ignor­ing oth­ers. It’s the abil­ity to focus nar­rowly on a single thing.
• Attentional switch­ing. Also known as task switch­ing or cog­nit­ive flex­ib­il­ity, this involves shift­ing focus from one task to anoth­er. It’s crit­ic­al for mul­ti­task­ing and adapt­ing to chan­ging demands or priorities.
• Divided atten­tion. This is the abil­ity to pro­cess two or more responses or react to mul­tiple tasks sim­ul­tan­eously. It’s often tested by ask­ing people to per­form two tasks sim­ul­tan­eously, like listen­ing to a con­ver­sa­tion while writ­ing.
• Attention accord­ing to the super­vis­ory atten­tion­al sys­tem. This concept, derived from cog­nit­ive psy­cho­logy, refers to a high­er-level con­trol sys­tem that reg­u­lates the alloc­a­tion of atten­tion, par­tic­u­larly in situ­ations requir­ing plan­ning or decision-making.
• Attention as inhib­i­tion. This aspect of atten­tion involves sup­press­ing irrel­ev­ant or dis­tract­ing stim­uli. It’s a cru­cial com­pon­ent of focused atten­tion and self-regulation.
• Spatial atten­tion. This type of atten­tion focuses on a spe­cif­ic area with­in the visu­al field. It’s like a spot­light that enhances inform­a­tion pro­cessing in a par­tic­u­lar location.
• Attention as plan­ning. This per­spect­ive views atten­tion as a resource that needs to be alloc­ated effi­ciently, espe­cially in com­plex tasks requir­ing stra­tegic plan­ning and organization.
• Interference. In the con­text of atten­tion, inter­fer­ence refers to the pro­cess by which irrel­ev­ant inform­a­tion or dis­trac­tions impede the effi­ciency of cog­nit­ive processing.
• Attention as arous­al. This con­siders atten­tion in the con­text of the gen­er­al level of alert­ness or arous­al. It’s about the read­i­ness of the brain to engage with stim­uli or tasks.
• Attention accord­ing to the assess­ment tra­di­tion. This refers to meas­ur­ing and eval­u­at­ing atten­tion­al pro­cesses, often in clin­ic­al or edu­ca­tion­al set­tings, to identi­fy atten­tion defi­cits or disorders.

Each type of atten­tion plays a cru­cial role in how we inter­act with and pro­cess inform­a­tion from our envir­on­ment, and under­stand­ing these dif­fer­ent aspects is key in fields like psy­cho­logy, neur­os­cience, and education.

Learn more: The Anatomy of Attention

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