Baader-Meinhof phenomenon en · NOUN
Etymology
Named in 1994 after the West German Baader-Meinhof Group of the 1970s, when a commentator unexpectedly heard two references to the group within 24 hours. The group is named after two of its leaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.
Meanings
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(no-plural) A cognitive bias by which a recently learned word, concept, etc. suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency.
There’s a well-known cognitive bias where, after you become aware of something new, you start seeing it everywhere. It’s known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, but from this year, I’ll think of it as the Katy B effect, after Katy on a Mission became the unexpected soundtrack of my summer.
[2025 December 25, Elle Hunt, “Paranoia, pop-dubstep and perfectly odd gems: the best old music we discovered this year”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 25 Dec 2025:
Synonyms
frequency illusion · Baader-Meinhof effect
wikipedia: Andreas Baader · wikipedia: Red Army Faction · wikipedia: Ulrike Meinhof