Concept information
Preferred term
law of unintended consequences
Definition
- It is a truism that human actions have unintended consequences. The sociologist Robert K. Merton, who authored a classic statement of the phenomenon in 1936, noted that the subject has been treated by virtually every substantial contributor to the long history of social thought. [Source: Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society; Unintended Consequences, Law of]
Broader concept
Belongs to group
URI
https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/law_of_unintended_consequences
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