Buy a new car model or learn a new word, and suddenly you see it everywhere? That’s the frequency illusion: selective attention and confirmation bias make your brain flag it as “common” when it isn’t. Your brain is a pattern detector, not a perfect camera.

red car on street

Frequency illusion: Understanding the cognitive bias and how to overcome it

Baader Meinhof Phenomenon

r/wikipedia - Frequency illusion, also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon or frequency bias, is a cognitive bias in which, after noticing something for the first time, there is a tendency to notice it more often, leading someone to believe that it has an increased frequency of occurrence.

Buy a new car model or learn a new word, and suddenly you see it everywhere? That’s the frequency illusion: selective attention and confirmation bias make your brain flag it as “common” when it isn’t. Your brain is a pattern detector, not a perfect camera.

The Baader Meinhof effect: why you notice something everywhere right after

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