Thursday, December 19, 2013

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Baader-Meinhof – An Interesting Thing You Already Know

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What is Baader-Meinhof? Well, Baader-Meinhof is the phenomenon where one happens upon some obscure piece of information– often an unfamiliar word or name– and soon afterwards encounters the same subject again, often repeatedly ( definition source: www.urbandictionary.com).

Does it sound strange? Or, did you experience this phenomenon earlier? However, if you didn't experience it before in your life then you will experience it soon :). Usually, people express such coincidences by making a surprise remark like “OMG.I just heard about that or we just talked about that.” People caught in such situation is known to have experiencing Baader-Meinof effect. For example, you have just heard about a person or his name and what happens is within a short period of time you start noticing that person almost every day. But, the weird thing in such incident is that you have never noticed or seen that person at any time in past before you have heard the name of that particular person.

Lots of people experience this phenomenon a few times in their lives. Now, the question arises, what can be the underlying cause of Baader- Meinhof? The answer is very simple. It’s somewhat like experiencing a highly meaningful coincidence, or almost bearing similarity to synchronicity which invokes a feeling of mild surprise and coincidental intersection of events which cause someone to think about this bizarre reality.

Who termed this phenomenon? What is the Baader-Meinhof history?

It is said that after hearing the name of the German left-wing militant group Baader-Meinhof twice in 24 hours, a commenter, on the St. Paul Pioneer Press online discussion board, has coined the term Baader-Meinhof. And this wordsmith’s termed phrase has become popular afterwards and with time its popularity spreads through newspapers and finally spreads to the World Wide Web. However, earlier people used to call this phenomenon as Baader-Meinof group.


The scientific reason behind the Baader-Meinhof syndrome, which is also known as frequency illusion, is very simple. The human brain is a fantastic pattern recognition engine as it collects and stores so many words, names, and ideas each day and thus, by considering this fact, as a result what we see is that we come across and encounter the same information again within a short interval of time. But the interesting thing is that we only come up with those events which has certain impact on our mind. The reason behind Baader-Meinhof or repetitive event is nothing but it's a kind of our brains' prejudice towards patterns and the tendency of ignoring the uninteresting information and sticking to interesting and selective attention which lies within our deep unconscious mind. 
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36 comments:

  1. Wow! Learned something new today.. This Baader-Meinhof is kind of like the total inverse of Dejavu!

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  2. I have encountered this.. Exactly like you have described...A new word coming repeatedly to our attention...A new name and it is everywhere you go... like that..
    Interesting that the phenomenon has a name..Thank you for the info..

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    1. Really, Preethi?? you already experienced it. Cool!!
      It's my pleasure to share this interesting name and topic as well :)

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  3. This is interesting. I didn't know of this earlier, at least I didn't know its name. Good study done and I wonder what made you write on this. Did you experience some thing like this recently?

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    1. Glad you like this. I had experienced this phenomenon uncountable times but just came to know the name recently.

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  4. Yep..strange coincidences always happen.. the history behind this coinage Baader-Meinhof is interesting..thanks for sharing..:-)

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  5. Baader-Meinhof !
    I have experience many times including places and things. Sometimes its nostalgic and sometimes frightening
    And thanks for explaining the syndrome so beautifully :)

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    1. Me too experienced it a lot.
      I appreciate your comment :)

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  6. New for me but interesting phenomenon :)

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    1. Yes, it is :)
      Thank you for stopping by and making a comment :)

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  7. Baader-Meinhof!! That's a new word! Thanks for the post :)

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  8. Yes! I have had experiences like that! I never knew there was a word for it, though! :D

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  9. Very interesting!

    http://heywaitlistenblog.blogspot.in/

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  10. I echo everyone's sentiment here. I have experienced it too, but never knew it had a name. Thanks!

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    1. Oh, so lovely. Thank you so much for dropping in and leaving a lovely comment :)

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  11. Cool Bharati. Never knew of the term. Sort of Deja Vu! To encounter again and again :)

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  12. Such an interesting read Bharati :)

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    1. Yes, Baaser Meinhof is an interesting topic itself. I just try to explain and share it :)
      Thank you so much you find it interesting :)

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  13. beautiful... the content and the way you have written it is just beautiful..

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    1. Thank you, Dr. Riyaz. I appreciate your comment and thanks for stopping by.
      I am glad you like my writing style :)

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  14. Very interesting....Thanks for visiting my blog again, janey

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  15. Amazing post, Bharati. I always learn something new from your posts.
    Regards,
    Kiran.

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    1. Thanks, Kiran :) I always try to come up with new and interesting topics in my each and every post :)
      It seems my effort is fruitful.

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  16. Very Interesting :)

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  17. Interesting. I myself like to write about such things on my blog. I write about 1 new thing like this everyday. Just one. Quality of the posts is world-class but mine, somehow never end up as the top posts on Indiblogger. Can you give me some tips?
    How long have you been writing?

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    1. Hello!! Anupum, First of all I want to thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment.
      I visited your blog and there is nothing wrong in your content or the topic you choose to write. In fact, you always come up with something scientific base interesting topic.
      Now, to answer your question i would like to suggest that please take time to read the posts of fellow bloggers in indiblogger and never forget to leave a genuine comment. Also, do vote the posts that you find interesting. you can also add the people in your network in indiblogger itself. By doing that you can develop a warm friendly relationship with your like-minded bloggers.
      It's been years I have been writing. But just a year back I have started this particular blog :)
      Hope you find your answers.

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