Feedback loop
Etymology
The term "feedback" arose in early twentieth-century electrical engineering, describing signal fed back into a circuit, and was generalized by Norbert Wiener’s cybernetics in the 1940s into a universal principle of self-regulating systems. A "positive" loop amplifies change while a "negative" loop counteracts it — labels about direction, not desirability. The concept now spans biology, economics, climate science, and everyday talk about habits and behavior.
noun phrase · /FEED-bak loop/
A cycle in which the output of a system feeds back as input, either amplifying the process or damping it down.
What it names
The hidden engine behind runaway trends and stubborn stability alike — why success compounds, panics spiral, and thermostats hold steady.
Example
The app’s recommendation engine created a feedback loop: the more outrage users clicked, the more outrage it served, steadily narrowing what they saw.
Related idea
A vicious cycle is the everyday name for one destructive positive feedback loop; feedback loop is the neutral, general mechanism that can stabilize as easily as it spirals.