unintended consequence

English

Alternative forms

  • unanticipated consequence, unforeseen consequence

Etymology

Popularized by sociologist Robert K. Merton.

Noun

unintended consequence (plural unintended consequences)

  1. (originally sociology, in the plural) An outcome of a purposeful action that is not intended or foreseen.
    • 2019 May 4, Bret Stephens, “Facebook’s Unintended Consequence”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      Over the past several years we’ve learned a lot about the unintended consequences of social media. Platforms intended to bring us closer together make us angrier and more isolated.

See also

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.