# 50. Self-delusion - the manipulation of self ## 50.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 50.5.4. Frequency illusion A sub-type of confirmation bias is the so called "frequency illusion". This is that apparently strange occurrence when once you've noticed a phenomenon, it then seems to happen a lot, all the time in fact. For instance, some book or movie you haven't heard of for years suddenly starts to be mentioned all the time. If you are thinking about buying a new car, you suddenly see people driving them everywhere. If you've just ended a long-term relationship, suddenly every song you hear seems to be written about love - your love, or it has been a favourite of your ex-partner. If you are having a baby, you start to see babies everywhere. It can seem that this constant appearance has a supernatural significance. In reality it has a very simple psychological explanation. The reason this happens is because the subject is close to your recent memory, and suddenly you subconsciously start noticing its presence in the random world around you, giving the illusion that an awful lot of coincidences are occurring. This leads you to the suspicion that something more profound is happening. Such events can lead an unwitting person to suspect that some deeper, almost supernatural event is happening to them, when in fact it is just the mind playing tricks.