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HandWiki. Unintended Consequences. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29245 (accessed on 24 September 2026).
HandWiki. Unintended Consequences. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29245. Accessed September 24, 2026.
HandWiki. "Unintended Consequences" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29245 (accessed September 24, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, October 14). Unintended Consequences. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/29245
HandWiki. "Unintended Consequences." Encyclopedia. Web. 14 October, 2022.
Unintended Consequences
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In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen. The term was popularised in the twentieth century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton and expanded by economist Thomas Sowell and psychologist Stuart Vyse. Unintended consequences can be grouped into three types:

  • Unexpected benefit: A positive unexpected benefit (also referred to as luck, serendipity or a windfall).
  • Unexpected drawback: An unexpected detriment occurring in addition to the desired effect of the policy (e.g., while irrigation schemes provide people with water for agriculture, they can increase waterborne diseases that have devastating health effects, such as schistosomiasis).
  • Perverse result: A perverse effect contrary to what was originally intended (when an intended solution makes a problem worse).
unintended consequences social consequences

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