We May Be Suffering From Blue Car Syndrome

You haven't heard of Blue Car syndrome?  Remember the last time you went car shopping. You found a particular make and model (a "blue car") and then, like magic, you see that same "blue car" 10 times in the next week. It's in the parking lot of your gym. It pulls up next to you in traffic. It's even parked down the block from your house. The blue cars didn't just suddenly appear. So what happened? It's sometimes called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon or frequency illusion. It occurs when something you've just noticed, like a new car, suddenly crops up everywhere. You really are seeing more blue cars, but not because there are more blue cars, but because you are now noticing them more.