4 ms·
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baader%E2%80%93Meinhof_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baader%E2%80%93Meinhof_effect
by pfooti 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baader%E2%80%93Meinhof_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baader%E2%80%93Meinhof_effect
- kevinmchugh 8y agoI just heard about this!
- JimboOmega 8y agoA subset of that I've noticed is whatever type of vehicle I'm driving seems way more common the road. Whether that's a motorcycle, a convertible, or a bland rented sedan.
- jchw 8y agoI believe as a running gag, in some of the Grand Theft Auto games, whatever vehicle you are driving in will appear significantly more often. Not sure if this is still the case, but I always found it amusing, since yeah, I also noticed this effect in real life (even if it's just fallacious.)
- codetrotter 8y agoI noticed that as well but for whatever reason I just assumed that it was so that 1) You wouldn’t be seeing so many other cool cars and thus be tempted to switch cars all the time as that would distract you from driving where you were going. 2) If you wrecked your vehicle it would be easier to get a new one of the exact same kind. But I think your explanation makes a lot of sense. They embedded a lot of humor in those games. It is also conceivable that they initially did it as a joke and then once they had implemented and play tested it they discovered the benefits mentioned above, and made the case stronger for keeping it that way. We may never know :)
- stordoff 8y agoI have read, though I'm struggling to find an original source, that it was due to memory constraints - it was easier to spawn a vehicle if it was already loaded than to keep paging between them.
- jchw 8y agoThat sounds like it is probably true. I have never heard any official confirmation that it was a gag, so I think this explanation must be the correct one.
- dmix 8y agoFrom one of the sources ([2]) via Wikipedia: > The considerably catchier sobriquet Baader-Meinhof phenomenon was invented in 1994 by a commenter on the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ online discussion board, who came up with it after hearing the name of the ultra-left-wing German terrorist group twice in 24 hours. The phrase became a meme on the newspaper’s boards, where it still pops up regularly, and has since spread to the wider Internet. It even has its own Facebook page. https://psmag.com/social-justice/theres-a-name-for-that-the-baader-meinhof-phenomenon-59670 https://psmag.com/social-justice/theres-a-name-for-that-the-... Seems like an unusual way for a name to start, via a random comment on some obscure online forum in 1994. Language is weird.