Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb. Here. Let's pretend you have
Speaker 1: oh Says to spare and you're out shopping for a
Speaker 1: shiny new ride. You've never really cared about cars that
Speaker 1: much before, minus perhaps a cerebral hate for the car
Speaker 1: commercials you see every seven seconds during a televised sporting event.
Speaker 1: But now you're invested. And when someone mentions a certain
Speaker 1: kind of car, one you've never heard of before, but
Speaker 1: maybe that gets high ratings on a consumer review site,
Speaker 1: you're interested. Suddenly that car is everywhere. It's parked on
Speaker 1: your street, your boss's husband has one. You see two
Speaker 1: of them next to in traffic on your way home
Speaker 1: from work. The car is even popping up in those
Speaker 1: ubiquitous commercials during the game, and you swear up and
Speaker 1: down they came out of nowhere. So what exactly is
Speaker 1: happening here? Did this car suddenly come to dominate the
Speaker 1: cultural consciousness? Or is your consciousness playing tricks on you?
Speaker 1: Welcome to the batter Main Haff phenomenon. Otherwise known as
Speaker 1: the frequency illusion or recency illusion. This phenomenon occurs when
Speaker 1: a thing you've just noticed experienced or been told about
Speaker 1: suddenly crops up constantly. It gives you the feeling that
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, pretty much the whole world is talking
Speaker 1: about this subject, or that it's swiftly surrounding you, and
Speaker 1: you're not crazy. You are totally seeing it more. But
Speaker 1: the thing is, of course, that's because you're noticing it more.
Speaker 1: A couple of things happen when the batter main haf
Speaker 1: phenomenon kicks in. One, your brain seems to be excited
Speaker 1: by the fact that you've learned something new, and selective
Speaker 1: attention occurs. Your brain subconsciously thinks, hey, that's awesome, I'm
Speaker 1: going to look for that thing without you needing to
Speaker 1: actually think about it, so now that your senses are
Speaker 1: on alert for it, you find it. To make it
Speaker 1: all the more powerful, Confirmation bias occurs after seeing it
Speaker 1: even once or twice. Confirmation bias is essentially our desire
Speaker 1: to be correct. It's the psychological trait where we're inclined
Speaker 1: to notice and remember information that supports our pre existing views,
Speaker 1: and to ignore or disregard information that refutes what we
Speaker 1: already believe to be true. In other words, you start
Speaker 1: agreeing with yourself that Yep, you're definitely seeing this thing
Speaker 1: more than you ever have before. Strangely, though, the batter
Speaker 1: Mainhuff phenomenon isn't named for two researchers who studied it,
Speaker 1: as things like this often are. Nope, it's named for
Speaker 1: a militant West German terrorist group that was active in
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. A nineteen nineties online comment board was
Speaker 1: the unlikely source of the name. A commenter on the St. Paul,
Speaker 1: Minnesota Pioneer press board dubbed the frequency illusion the batter
Speaker 1: Mainhuff phenomenon after they randomly heard two references to batter
Speaker 1: main Hoff within twenty four hours. The phenomenon has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the gang, in other words, but don't
Speaker 1: be surprised if the name starts popping up everywhere you turn.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Kate Kirshner and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler clang A. Brain Stuff is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other topics oddly influenced by the nineteen nineties,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet how Stuff Works dot com. And
Speaker 1: for more podcasts for my heart radio, visit i Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows,