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Most of us have had the experience of stumbling over a new fact or bit of knowledge and then finding several more references to it in the near future. For example, you see a strange word which you're forced to look-up and then the next day the same word appears in the headline of your local paper. There's a term for this phenomenon but I've been unable to track it down. Can anyone help?

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Great question. I've run into this phenomenon from time to time, and would love to know a word for it. Welcome to the site! – Jonik Nov 23 '10 at 0:14
I'll add to this a statistician’s point of view: beware of the rare event – F'x Mar 15 '11 at 8:46

4 Answers

up vote 11 down vote

I think you might be thinking of synchronicity.

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He might also be looking for the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, not being able to track it down because Wikipedia no longer has an article on that term. – RegDwighт♦ Nov 23 '10 at 9:50
I think that, despite what that deleted article says, the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is just a type of synchronicity. But interesting find, thanks! – Marthaª Nov 23 '10 at 14:25
@RegDwight: Sometimes the Wiki moves in mysterious ways... I noticed this deletion before and never understood the rationale behind it: at least it deserves a paragraph in Recency Effect or Synchronicity; the current disambiguation page doesn't explain it at all. – Cerberus Mar 14 '11 at 16:59
RegDwight, I can offer you the bounty, but you've not commented. – n0nChun Mar 15 '11 at 4:17
up vote 3 down vote

It's called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon and Read More here

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now can I give myself this bounty :P – n0nChun Mar 14 '11 at 16:37
up vote 4 down vote

As others note, some call it the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and it is somewhat close to synchronicity. It is also related to the recency effect. The psychological term for it seems to be the primacy effect or priming

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up vote 3 down vote

That would be a form of confirmation bias. "Synchronicity" is a pop-psychology term.

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No. Seeing something because you've recently seen it, is not the same as seeing things because it's what you expect. – Matt Эллен Apr 23 '12 at 10:40
Frequency illusion is the psychological term you are looking for. – Matt Эллен Apr 23 '12 at 10:45

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