Unintended consequences are outcomes of social action or organizational arrangements that nobody set out to produce, as when a routinized reporting template narrows attention. The idea shows how structures built for reliability can breed conduct poorly fitted to exceptional cases.
- Entry typeKey concept
- Category of its source unitEffects, Biases & Phenomena
- DomainOrganization & Structure
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Entry type
Key concept
Key concepts are the working vocabulary of the field: the terms that the models and tools rely on and that a decision about communication has to use precisely. Each entry defines the term and sends you to the brief or the self-guided audit where it is put to work.
Editorial orientation · Category
Effects, Biases & Phenomena
Identifies a bounded pattern in judgment, behavior or communication and the conditions under which it appears. Naming the pattern makes a recurring difficulty recognizable; it does not make the pattern inevitable or supply a complete explanation.