Frequency Illusion: Why haven’t you noticed this before?

Has something like this ever happened to you?

Someone uses a word you had never heard before, and you ask them what it means. Then you’re reading or watching TV and there it is. Suddenly you’ve understood something you would not have yesterday.

That’s because your mind has optimized the importance of this observation, increasing your awareness of the subject for when you encounter it again.

I used to call this the “Monty Python” or “Princess Bride” phenomenon.

For example, if you’ve never seen The Princess Bride, you have likely missed countless references to scenes from the movie. Someone says “inconceivable” with a lisp and someone else replies in a Spanish accent “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” If you’ve seen the movie, it’s fun times. If not, you’ve no clue why it’s amusing. But once you see it, the quotes, the references, the cast, and the movie itself are suddenly everywhere.

Well, after some intense Googling, I discovered that this phenomenon not only exists, but it has a name. The psychiatric community calls it the “Frequency Illusion”, but prior to that it had obscurely been referred to as the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.

In fact, you’ve probably experienced this before, but even if you haven’t…you will now.

The concept speculates that when something you never knew is brought to your attention, it suddenly seems to pop up repeatedly making you wonder why you never noticed it before. Someone tells you they ate a delicious “Chirimoya” on a trip to Ecuador. And you’re like, “What the @#%* is a Chirimoya?” The next day, you’re buying groceries and there’s a sign: ‘Chirimoyas In-season’.

Anytime someone says “That’s so weird, I just heard about that yesterday”, the BH phenomenon is in play.

Not to be mistaken for synchronicity, which is the coincidental experience akin to someone calling you as you were thinking of them. But both phenomena invoke mild surprise, and cause one to consider the odds of such an intersection. Both can be viewed as the workings of fate. Who are we to argue?

The scientific mind will simply tell us that it’s a small world in which we cannot avoid frequent coincidence, but this phenomenon strikes with such brazen accuracy that it makes us wonder if something greater is at play.

The reason for this is that our brains are prone to pattern recognition, which is how we learn new things, but it also occasionally causes us to lend importance to otherwise unremarkable circumstances. After all, with so much information, the likelihood of encountering repetition is high. That’s when the brain senses the beginnings of a sequence and says “Hey, this must mean something”, and its “reward center” pats us on the back, and our egos tell us that we’re smart, and we feel special.

In simpler terms, the more we pay attention, the more likely these “coincidences” will occur.

This is the Frequency Illusion.

Have you heard of Phoebe Waller-Bridge? Actress and writer of the TV series, Fleabag? Most of you probably have. But those who haven’t, go ahead… turn on the TV, open a magazine, or go online and try to avoid her. She WILL find you. Because your brain has been stimulated. By me.

FYI, I am available for parties, and once again, you’re welcome.