Categories of Unintended Consequences


There are many frameworks with which to evaluate unintended consequences. So far in my writing here I’ve looked at examples arranged around a theme (species introduction, food, government policy, human behavior etc) where there is a somewhat clear relationship between cause and effect (even if sometimes only in hindsight). I haven’t yet touched frameworks of complexity and won’t do so until I go deeper into more second-order effects.

This week I step back and look at basic categories of unintended consequences and call out potential new areas of exposure to second-order effects.

Unintended Consequences Categories
General categories of unintended consequences

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What Are Unexpected Benefits?

When studying unintended consequences and second-level thinking, the least common category of example is the unexpected benefit. This is a positive, yet unexpected or unpredictable outcome from an action.

Compare against the unexpected drawback (unexpected detriments that occur in addition to the desired effect of the solution) and the perverse result (the “solution” makes the problem worse).

And a scan of common examples makes me believe that some of what we call unexpected benefits are improperly classified.

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