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andrewmmm t1_ja3cho5 wrote

Reply to comment by CrustalTrudger in Is there any possible relation between the recent earthquakes in Turkey/Syria, Japan and Papua New Guinea? by Corvid-21

A good example of the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon that most people encounter in their lives is with new words. Have you ever seen a word you’ve never seen before, looked up the definition, then all of the sudden you see the word everywhere? That word has always presented itself to you, but you have only taken notice now that you learned it. This is the same effect.

For example, I had never seen the word “ephemeral” until I was reading a tutorial the other day and had to look up the definition. I swear I have seen that damn word like 4 times this week in completely unrelated scenarios.

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PMMEANUMBER1-10 t1_ja4td4b wrote

The irony is that after learning about Baader-Meinhof, you'll start to see it everywhere too

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Shrimpits t1_ja5sc7z wrote

It’s funny because I just learned about the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon a couple weeks ago

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Fritzkreig t1_ja6d5o0 wrote

I used the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon in a online discussion thread in my masters language aquisition course work.

The PhD. teaching the course called me out about how in the world does an 80s communist German terror organisation have anything to do with out discussion.

I sent her some links, and let her know she will being seeing those words in her life more frequently now.

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Veestoria t1_ja705bz wrote

Hmmm this is the first I hear of it EVER so I’ll come back and let y’all know if I come across it again sometime soon!

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Shrimpits t1_ja7fv8e wrote

Please do! I have had the actual phenomenon happen to me a lot (first time I ever remember was when I learned what “serendipitous” was and then the next day I heard it used in the movie Let’s Go To Prison lol), but I never knew what it was called until I googled it recently, and now the name popped up in the wild

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[deleted] t1_ja3gmgb wrote

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[deleted] t1_ja3ibk7 wrote

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NotTooDeep t1_ja4il4p wrote

> Baader–Meinhof

I've been googling on something that should be related to this for a while and can't find the info. My question is this: what is the opposite of the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon?

I recall watching a show decades ago that described the discovery of nerve cells in the lymph nodes in the 1970s or 80s. The research overthrew the common understanding that the immune system was autonomous from the rest of us, especially our brains, and kind of just did its thing. This gave some credence to depression as having a role in reducing our immunity to disease. You catch more colds when you're down.

The person interviewing the scientist asked why it had taken centuries for anyone to see these nerves. All of the thousands of med students and researchers and physicians did not see these nerves.

Is there a word or phrase that describes this phenomena? Blind spot comes to mind, but not the physical blind spot in the eye; I'm referring to some kind of blind spot that filters out images in the brain because we 'know' they don't exist, so we don't see them.

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notionovus t1_ja4vwx5 wrote

The term you might be referring to is scotoma. The technical term for a "blind spot" in the eye, it is used in psychology to refer to something you become blind or ignorant of.

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4x49ers t1_ja55m7i wrote

I'm thinking of something I learned as task oriented blindness but is apparently really called Inattentional blindness.

>Inattentional blindness or perceptual blindness (rarely called inattentive blindness) occurs when an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight, purely as a result of a lack of attention rather than any vision defects or deficits.

To over simplify a bit, they didn't see them because they weren't looking for them. You might have heard of the invisible gorilla test which demonstrates it, and I recall a BBC program where they were testing it as well: they had a pilot fly some people from A to B telling them to keep an eye out for X, I can't recall. Anywhere they flew over Stonehenge on the way there, and no one saw it, then flying the same route back (without being told to look for X) they were surprised to find it along the same path.

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NotTooDeep t1_ja57gpp wrote

Yes. I found that Wikipedia page as well. This also makes me think about situational awareness. That scene in the diner in the original Bourne Identity movie, where he can't recall who he is, but tells the young woman who is helping him about the people and objects in the environment around him and what their meaning is.

I imagine a professional boxer sees arm and foot movements in a different way than someone who has never seen a boxing match.

Your example of the flight over Stonehenge is funny! Thanks for that.

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g0d15anath315t t1_ja62024 wrote

Sounds sort of like the "phenomenon" of Psychic Blindness.

The brain doesn't comprehend what it's seeingsl so it just subs in something that does make sense.

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mouldybun t1_ja72awh wrote

I noticed ephemeral in a book I read last year, funny you should choose that word... because I do feel I see it around more, but it must be purely the way I'm reacting to it, because in the book it's used to refer to non immortal, non digitized humans (the book is we are legion we are bob.) and it's sort of elevated the word to a new status... but I've been using google Vm's for years prior... and when you dont have a static IP its "ephemeral". Its odd how it's been this background thing and I literally never paid it any mind

Also, I think I did look up the definition... or the definition was explained in the book.

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