Name That Phenomenon

July 7, 2005 10:35 AM

Isn't there a name for that phenomenon wherein, once you start paying attention to something, you see it everywhere? You know, like when you buy a 1980 Toyota Celica, for example, and all of the sudden you see one on every block.
posted by etc. to Society & Culture (24 answers total)

This has been asked before recently, have a search. Loads of terms were put forward.
posted by fire&wings at 10:38 AM on July 7, 2005

The aforementioned discussion
posted by milkrate at 10:46 AM on July 7, 2005

Synchronicity is the one I've seen repeated over and over. Or does it just feel that way to me?
posted by mnology at 10:46 AM on July 7, 2005

Plate of shrimp. (I thought I posted this in the earlier thread but I couldn't find it on a google search. Maybe someone thought it was a nonsequitur and deleted it.)
posted by matildaben at 10:48 AM on July 7, 2005

The psychological phenomenon — you notice more Toyotas once you have one — is called "prompting" or "salience."
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:55 AM on July 7, 2005

mnology, I think you may have misread the question or have a misunderstanding regarding synchronicity. Synchronicity is basically a meaningful low-probability coincidence. Like when you're thinking about a long-lost friend and suddenly he's in line behind you at the grocery store. That's synchronicity.

To my mind, a synchronistic event happens once. It's not something repeatable, like seeing a particular car model over and over again.

Maybe the correct word is apophenia? (Then again, maybe not.)
posted by jdroth at 10:56 AM on July 7, 2005

Perhaps the term you're looking for is "projection".
posted by Rothko at 11:16 AM on July 7, 2005

jdroth: Appears I'm suffering from a little bit of both. I know Syncronicity when I feel it, and looking back, this isn't it. I'll leave this to the experts: languagehat weighs in on apophenia
posted by mnology at 11:31 AM on July 7, 2005

I propose acrylamide gel polymerization.
posted by spicynuts at 11:31 AM on July 7, 2005

mnology's corrected link
posted by Mitheral at 11:54 AM on July 7, 2005

The Pioneer Press of St. Paul calls it the "Baader Meinhof Phenomenom". Their "Bulletin Board" column has been running columns on it for a long time now.
posted by unixrat at 11:59 AM on July 7, 2005

Here's an example of the PP and the B-M Phenom.
posted by unixrat at 12:02 PM on July 7, 2005

"Baader Meinhof Phenomenom"
Ok... that's the weirdest thing ever... someone just sent me an email referencing the BM gang, previous to that I hadn't read, heard or thought about them in, like, ten years, then here in a thread about apopheniricity...
posted by Capn at 12:21 PM on July 7, 2005

OK, so I'm driving around Destin, FL on vacation & we stop into a butcher's shop for some fresh shrimp. Outside the shop is a store panel delivery truck with various products painted on it - "Shrimp" "Redfish" Prime Rib", etc. (you get the idea). One of the words is "Turducken". Me, I never heard of it - ever. Later, back at the condo I'm rifling through the entertainment center drawers for something to read and come up with A Million Little Pieces (great book by the way), and start reading by the pool. Twenty pages in up pops the word "turducken" - what's that, synchronicity, apophenia, plate of shrimp or schizophrenia?
posted by Pressed Rat at 12:25 PM on July 7, 2005

Confirmation bias?
posted by kenko at 12:38 PM on July 7, 2005

Twenty pages in up pops the word "turducken" - what's that, synchronicity, apophenia, plate of shrimp or schizophrenia?

Sounds like a potpourri: they all apply!
posted by jdroth at 1:00 PM on July 7, 2005

On wordorigins.org they call it diegogarcity ("A term used on this board to denote the appearance of a term in multiple sources shortly after you have looked it up in the dictionary"). It was coined by the excellent wordhound aldiboronti in this thread, on the model of serendipity ("Perhaps we could choose another island in the Indian Ocean, and stick an -ity on the end").
posted by languagehat at 1:11 PM on July 7, 2005 [1 favorite]

Ok... that's the weirdest thing ever... someone just sent me an email referencing the BM gang, previous to that I hadn't read, heard or thought about them in, like, ten years, then here in a thread about apopheniricity...

Ha ha. See?

After moving to the Twin Cities a few years ago and directly after starting to read the PP and learning about B-M, I bought a Monty Python tape. First side, first skit? Yup.

(Paraphrased) "I'd like to welcome the local representative of the Baader-Meinhof group, who is the only one armed here tonight...."

Nearly fell out of the car.
posted by unixrat at 1:15 PM on July 7, 2005

My entry (linked on the last thread by Gael) four years ago on the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon seems to be the oldest non-Pioneer Press mention of it on the web.

/horn toot
posted by norm at 1:46 PM on July 7, 2005

Yeah, I had never noticed this phenomenon, but now I see it everywhere. Even two questions on AskMe about it!
posted by grouse at 2:13 PM on July 7, 2005

I call it selective attention.
posted by goethean at 3:33 PM on July 7, 2005

For me, it's "epiphanitis" (superfluous epiphany.)

Ozzie Maland
posted by ozziemaland at 8:38 PM on July 7, 2005

how cool is that?
posted by hayeled at 9:43 PM on July 7, 2005

(probably should have been that)
posted by hayeled at 9:47 PM on July 7, 2005