Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
There is a name for that feeling!
Have you ever heard about the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon? If not, then you will probably hear about it in the next few days. Because that is what the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon means!
One really cannot count on their fingers the number of times when they heard a piece of information and then reheard it from someone else. When this happens to you the next time, don’t act surprised. Just smile and say, “Oh, it’s the Baader- Meinhof phenomenon!”
But the real question is: Why is the Baader- Meinhof phenomenon a universal one?
In fact, the synchronicity of events shouldn’t be a novel concept in a highly globalized world, where everything is connected to something else. But science is more complex than globalization. And our minds are more intriguing than we can ever imagine.
When one hears about something that has already been mentioned to him/her, the brain instantly notices the ‘coincidence’, because two events make up for an interesting pattern.
However, what our brain doesn’t promote are all the words, ideas, and concepts that often go unnoticed. Selective attention is at work here. When we hear about something interesting, we tend to remember it for a longer time. And our brain notices that interesting information more quickly when it is mentioned again.
The Origin of the Phenomenon:
The name of the phenomenon itself is what it is today because of this phenomenon itself! Okay, to make it less confusing, let us simplify the origins.
It is said that the person who named it had heard about the existence of the infamous German guerrilla group of the same name.
He heard it twice more through people around him, and thus, named the phenomenon ‘Baader- Meinhof’.
Another story suggests that the phenomenon gets its name from a discussion thread in 1995, called the ‘St. Paul Pioneer Press’.
While discussing the sensation and trying to give it a name, someone coined it ‘Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon’. Again, because that person himself heard about the moniker more than twice from somewhere!
No matter what origin and science lie behind the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, let us all thank those two anonymous men. Because of them, we now have a name for that feeling we all experience at least once in our lives!