Submitted 5 days ago by rational_lib@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Yes I know, your least-favorite idea goes here. But seriously, someone must have come up with the concept before. Like some cults could fall into this category, where joining the cult makes people more cut off from society, so they become more likely to fall deeper into the cult. But it can apply to a number of other bad ideas.
Conservatism.
That’s more of a mental disability
“Streisand effect” comes to mind, but like “sunk cost fallacy” it’s just an example of something “becoming more popular the more it fails.”
“Its Morbin Time” comes to mind
Springtime for Hitler. Somewhat fits. It’s an intentional failure that succeeded.
Popular boondoggle is a term we used to use at work. I’ve never herd it used outside that job though.
There’s a certain amount of Gambler’s Fallacy in this, too: I’ll keep going, because it’s going to turn around.
Yeah, I think it’s the really the Gambler’s Fallacy, even if OP doesn’t describe gambling. It’s the idea of “It’s my turn for success to come soon – I’m due for my turn!”
Feels like there ought to be a term… it’s kind of a mix between “vicious circle”, “feedback loop”, and “echo chamber”.
There is the sunk-cost fallacy, but that is more about investments. I don’t know if it’s refers to popularity like OP wants.
Sunk cost fallacy is probably the most obvious one that springs to mind. Not unlike gambling in a sense, people feel they just need one big payout to win it all back and then some, so they keep betting, hoping that this time things will go in their favour.
Sounds about right. This keeps happening at my job, executives throwing good money after bad in an attempt to get some return on their investment. If we had just cut our losses years ago we’d be in a much better place now.
I world call that “failing upward” which is fucking up your job such that you get a promotion.
It can be a thing for more skilled labor jobs. Sure you kinda suck at say… running machine shop equipment. You break more stuff and make more blem parts than most of the people in the shop. But it seems like you have a grasp on the overall processes and can type decently.
Boom now you’re not working on machines but managing machinists. Ordering what they need, stat tracking, scheduling etc.
Ponzi scheme? Multi-Level Marketing? Pyramid scheme?
The term isn’t quite as specific as you want, but it sounds like a positive feedback loop?
Sunk cost fallacy?
Quicksand.
Perhaps the closest term is “cognitive dissonance.” I don’t think current usage best fits your description, although the original event certainly does.
simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html
Cognitive dissonance was first investigated by Leon Festinger, arising out of a participant observation study of a cult that believed that the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood, and what happened to its members — particularly the really committed ones who had given up their homes and jobs to work for the cult — when the flood did not happen.
While fringe members were more inclined to recognize that they had made fools of themselves and to “put it down to experience,” committed members were more likely to re-interpret the evidence to show that they were right all along (the earth was not destroyed because of the faithfulness of the cult members).
I don’t know if the ‘wanting is better than having’ Trope is the best fit but it’s a decent fit and kind of caters to the social aspect of what you’re describing
I would usually refer to such a thing as a “Producers” (like the play) but that is specifically for bad ideas that suck for a majority of people but benefit a few.
SGforce@lemmy.ca 5 days ago
That’s the “sunk cost fallacy”
rational_lib@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Sunk cost fallacy is definitely a subtype, but I’m going for I guess the more general concept of an idea that becomes more popular the worse it does
Donkter@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I don’t think it is a subcategory I think it’s the term you’re looking for.
The actual phrase has its origins in a financial sense but the way it’s used nowadays is much more broad. You can invest time, money, emotion, identity etc and it’s still the “sunk cost fallacy” if it keeps failing and you keep going.
Hugin@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Sunk cost fallacy is when you use previous expenditures to justify new expenditures so as not to “waist” the previous expenditure. It doesn’t imply the idea gets more popular like op is looking for.
y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
*waste
Sorry for being pedantic. Could’ve just been your autocorrect or not your first language lol no offense meant.