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Comment by llm_nerd | Hacker News Reader

We all know the Baader–Meinhof / frequency illusion, which is where something becomes interesting to an observer so suddenly they notice things that were always there, but because they suddenly notice it seems there has been some massive increase in frequency.

What is it when something gets into the zeitgeist narrative so every possible instance is widely reported on in a way that it wasn't before? Parts have always been flying off planes, and there have always been maintenance issues, but suddenly every single one is reported making it feel like it's some sudden outbreak. In the same way we're hearing about every boat hitting something when boats have always been hitting things, it just didn't have a context under which it was newsworthy.

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We should also be aware of the frequency illusion illusion, which is when an actual increase in frequency is mistakenly attributed to the frequency illusion, especially when the stakes are high.

If one's measure of the frequency of something is "how often the media reports on it" (media meaning traditional and social media), in all likelihood their awareness of the frequency that it occurs at, both presently and historically, is comically inaccurate.

The US alone has an emergency landing just about every day (if distributed evenly, though obviously as with random events it clusters). Weird hydraulic issues, landing gear problems, sensors not working correctly, flap issues, etc. Without a context it's an ordinary, regular event of zero notability beyond to some technical bulletins.

Do you have some reason to think the actual rate of incidents hasn’t increased?

Issues like this story happen many times every single day, and have for decades. Calling this an emergency landing is a bit of an exaggeration, and they returned for precautionary reasons. Barring actual data showing otherwise, there is zero reason to believe these incidents are more common.

Over the past few years the media has reported on athletes suffering heart issues if not sudden death. This has literally always happened, it just wasn't widely interesting or notable so it saw little reporting. Because of vax/anti-vax fears, media realized every such story would see massive virality so they leaned in. Suddenly a bunch of moms and pops[1] think this is some new thing. Exactly the same idea.

[1] - I mean, this event has been submitted here dozens of times. A cowling tearing off is about the least notable or interesting thing to happen on a plane. Outside of the Boeing-Bad current narrative it has zero noteworthiness unless you were on that plane and it was an inconvenience.

Why do you think that this happens multiple times every day? Do you have any sources, or are you just making things up?

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