Baader-Meinhof phenomenon

English Etymology Named in 1994 after the West German Red Army Faction 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. Noun ! en psychology A cognitive bias by which a recently learned word, concept, etc. suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency. en Baader-Meinhof effect frequency illusion en-GB on Elle Hunt Paranoia, pop-dubstep and perfectly odd gems: the best old music we discovered this year w:The Guardian 2025-12-25 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/25/the-best-old-music-we-discovered-this-year 0261-3077 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. https://web.archive.org/web/20251225163339/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/25/the-best-old-music-we-discovered-this-year Further reading frequency illusion en Biases en eponyms