cascade effect
Spreading sequential consequences
A cascade effect is a sequence of events where each triggers the next, like water flowing down a series of steps.
One change sets off another, which sets off another: The factory closure created a cascade effect—unemployment rose, spending dropped, and local businesses failed.
Common in discussions of economics, ecology, and complex systems where small disruptions can amplify into major consequences.
- dominoRectangular game piece
- domino theoryContagious political collapse belief
- rippleMinor surface disturbance
- chain reactionSelf-sustaining causal sequence
- chain of eventsConnected sequence of occurrences
snowball · avalanche · house of cards · trigger · downstream · spillover · slippery slope · momentum · unraveling · contagion · fallout · aftermath · tipping point · reverberating · tumbling · collapse · sequence · waterfall
- Overdiagnosisovertesting, overtreatment, overscreening, overprescription, overprescribing
- accelerationaccelerate, acceleration, accelerating, speed up, speeding up
- radiation
- herd behaviorherd mentality, conformism, peer pressure, following the crowd, sheep mentality
- control systemsfeedback control, closed loop, open loop, feedback loop, servomechanism
- space debrisspace junk, debris field, debris cloud, rocket stages, paint flakes
cascade effectcontainment
Preventing hostile expansion
quarantine · firebreak · circuit breaker · compartmentalization · self-limiting
cascade effectattenuation
Gradual intensity reduction
negative feedback · stabilization · absorption · buffering · diminishing returns
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