Have you ever found that once you notice something, it starts to appear like it's happening a lot? Chances are you have experienced this phenomenon at one point or the other but might not know the term for it. The name is the frequency of illusion or the Baader-Meinhof (pronounced badder minehoff) phenomenon.
Personally for me, sometimes when I'm in the midst of a large crowd, I would randomly pick a number in my mind, then I start to look around. I would suddenly start noticing those wearing that same color everywhere, even though there are other colors, but at that point, they would become less visible to me.
So what exactly is the Baadar Menihof phenomenon?
We tend to experience or notice something for the first time, which could be a color, number, etc, and then start seeing it everywhere around us giving us the impression that it's occurring more often. A common example that is mostly being used is the red or blue car illusion when after buying a red car, you suddenly start seeing red cars everywhere you turn, in the street, on TV. It now appears as if everyone suddenly has red cars. Though it's not as if it hasn't been there you became more conscious of it.
The term "frequency illusion" was form invented by Stanford linguistics professor Arnold Zwicky in 2005.
Is Baadar Menihof the same as priming?
Priming or effect is when exposure to a piece of information influences your decision without being able to trace the connection.
Have you seen the movie Focus? with Will Smith as the major role player? Ok, let me summarize.
Smith and his team spent the day conditioning their target to unconsciously associate the number 55 with various cues, such as on the lapel of a hotel doorman, in light fixtures, on posters in elevators, on clothing worn by people on the street, and even in a song playing in the background.
As a result, when the time came for their target to choose a number, the decision had already been subconsciously made.
These two cases are closely related. Now if you ask me, I will say the main difference between the two cases is that one is a natural phenomenon while the other is planned out deliberately for the target audience.