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TRAP #045 ·VOL I The Individual · Judgment & Evaluation Errors

Recency Illusion

The belief that something you have only recently noticed is itself recent - that the pattern is new because your awareness of it is new.
Category: BiasEvidence: ContestedTier 2Type: Patternⓘ what these mean

This is a Lexicon entry: the mechanism, when it shows up, and the countermeasure. The full correction, with real-world cases and the audit prompt, hasn't been written yet.

When it shows up

Linguistic prescriptivism ("kids today say 'literally' wrong" - they have for centuries). Perceiving a social trend as new because you just started noticing it. Believing a technology problem is new because it just affected you. Media trends that feel unprecedented but have historical precedents.

Failure mode

Treating longstanding phenomena as emerging crises. Proposing new solutions for old problems that have already been tried. Overreacting to "unprecedented" situations that are actually well-precedented.

Countermeasure

Before declaring something new or unprecedented, search for historical precedent. Ask: "Did this exist before I noticed it?" The answer is almost always yes. Apply CL-9 (Source Trace).

Related traps

Also connected in the map3 more, locked

Also revealed

Want the full correction for Recency Illusion?

This entry has the mechanism and countermeasure. The full write-up - real cases, sources, the audit prompt - comes later.

Entry #45 of 631 in The Lexicon · see the full Lexicon