Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
Another name for Frequency illusion
Another name for the frequency illusion: the experience of running into something again and again right after you first learn about it. The odd name comes from a newspaper reader who heard of the Baader-Meinhof Group, a West German militant group, twice in one day.
The name comes from a newspaper reader, not from a study, and the effect has rarely been tested directly; it is usually explained by well-studied processes such as selective attention.
In everyday life
The day after learning the word 'ubiquitous' at school, a student hears it on a podcast and sees it in a magazine and feels it is following them.
The day after a friend introduces you to an obscure band, you hear one of their songs in a shop and see their name on a poster, and it feels like more than coincidence.
Why your mind does this
We take in far more than we can handle, so the brain uses what is already active in memory as a filter. Things we met recently, often, or with strong feeling are likely to matter again, so pushing them forward saves time and effort.
Its family, in 30 seconds: Primed & repeated
How to spot it
Watch for the eerie feeling that a newly learned word, name, or idea is following you around.
How to counter it
Remind yourself the thing was probably there all along, and track how often it shows up over a few weeks before reading meaning into it.
Same family: Primed & repeated
SourceWikipedia