There's a phenomenon called the "Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon," or "frequency illusion." Have you ever learned a new word, fact, or idea and then suddenly started seeing it everywhere? That's the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon in action. After you learn something new or are made aware of something, you unconsciously keep an eye out for it, and as a result, you believe it's occurring more frequently than before. In reality, the frequency hasn't changed—your awareness has.

This phenomenon gets its name from the Baader-Meinhof Group, a German terrorist group from the 1970s. People who heard about the group for the first time felt like they began encountering references to it everywhere, hence the name of the phenomenon.