Recency Illusion
We incorrectly believe that something we recently noticed is actually new.
The recency illusion is the belief that things you have recently noticed are new or have recently come into existence. Language critics often claim that a word or phrase they've only recently encountered is a modern corruption, not realizing it has existed for centuries. People chronically mistake their own recent awareness of something for the thing's actual novelty.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Everyday life New Slang Complaint An older person insists that a word like 'literally' being used for emphasis is a modern corruption of language, unaware that this usage dates back hundreds of years.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
You recently started a meditation habit and feel calmer, assuming this is a unique breakthrough, not a common benefit of mindfulness practice.
A student finds a grammar rule in a new textbook and starts correcting everyone, unaware it's a basic rule they learned but forgot in elementary school.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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