Five Classic Causes of Unintended Consequences

What are the five causes of unintended consequences mentioned by Robert Mertion in his paper?

• Error
• Ignorance
• Basic values
• Short - term vs long - term interest
• Self defeating prophecy

What are the types of errors?

• Systematic errors
• Random errors
• Blunders
• Incentives
• P-hacking

What are basic values and their types?

Basic values are long-standing beliefs or ideals about what is good or bad, shared by members of a group. There are both stated (or believed) and practiced basic values. They spring from ideals, culture, history, and more and aren't necessarily ranked in order of goodness or badness.

What are the types of short term and long term interests?

• Physiological needs - This is where we choose what feels good in the short term even when there are known long-term consequences
• Classical economics - This is where individuals act in their own best interest without considering the whole system and end up producing other outcomes for society which were outside of anyone’s inten
• Psychological generator of emotional bias - We do things that feel good now rather than things that might be better later
• Trade-offs - Short-term interests have near-term pay-offs
• Connectedness - Change one thing and the effect ripples out elsewhere

What are the forms of ignorance?

• Ignorance by unawareness
• Ignorance from lack of usefulness
• Ability ignorance